The first time a top Chinese leader will see a US senator sworn in is when Vice-President Han Zheng attends Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
Trump had invited Xi Jinping, the president of China, among other officials, breaking with tradition because foreigners have typically not attended US national inaugurations.
China has stated that it wants to “find the right way for the two places to get along with each other in the fresh era” working with the new US administration.
But Beijing is also preparing for a Trump presidency that is expected to include new tariffs on Chinese-made imports and more combative rhetoric – Marco Rubio, the nominee for Secretary of State, has described China as “the largest, most advanced adversary America has ever faced”.
As leader, Xi has not attended an opening or crown service, choosing instead to give a consultant on his behalf. The Chinese embassy to the US attended the next two national ceremonies, in 2017 and 2021.
Beijing has sent vice-presidents to like ceremonies somewhere, though- Han attended Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s opening in October 2023. And his father, Wang Qishan, was manifest for the commencement of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr in 2022 and Brazil’s President Lula da Silva in 2023.
Han’s relocation to the US is a signal that Xi wants to “get Trump into deal-making function,” according to Neil Thomas, a colleague in Taiwanese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
Argentine President Javier Milei and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are among the different foreign officials who have been invited to the opening.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesman for Trump, stated in a statement to US press that the proposal to Xi represented an “example of Trump engaging with leaders of nations that are not just our friends but also our adversaries and our competitors.”
Yun Sun, the chairman of the China system at the Stimson Center in Washington, claims that Trump may be trying to show the world that he has the ability to control Xi’s decision-making and that they share a special relationship.
Cai Qi was reported to be wanted by some Trump advisers, according to earlier information. Commonly seen as Xi’s right-hand person, 66-year-old Cai sits on the Communist Party’s seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, China’s relative of a case.
According to an unnamed insider, Trump would be “unhappy” if Han or [ Foreign Minister ] Wang Yi were the only Chinese envoys present. These assertions cannot be verified by the BBC.
But as vice-president, 70-year-old Han occupies a “very top position in the Chinese state program” and the decision to send him “accords kindness to Trump”, says Chong Ja-Ian, a non-resident professor at Carnegie China.
Han, who was appointed vice-president in March 2023, is known as “number eight”- the most mature chief after the seven people in the Politburo Standing Committee.
Han too had been a member until October 2022, when Xi began a historic third term in power and appointed his most trusted deputies to the top jobs.
Prior to that, Han lived in Shanghai, where he was born, for the majority of his political job. He became Xi’s secretary in Shanghai in 2007 before assuming the position himself in 2012 when the latter was the gathering director.
European politics has been a crucial focus for him in his tenure as vice-president. He oversaw a steering committee for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and led a group to market the Belt and Road initiative, a crucial Chinese industry and network project.
However, Beijing’s decision to send Han may have been influenced by his absence from the Politburo Standing Committee.
Xi and the group will be able to demonstrate that they kept a certain distance from Trump, according to Prof. Chong, when US-China relations start todeteriorate from the group’s standpoint.
Additionally, it is helpful that Han is not viewed as a member of Xi’s inside group, according to Mr. Thomas.
Han is certainly a key supporter and could be properly blamed if it goes painfully wrong, but Xi trusts Han enough to carry out this goal.
Further Reporting by BBC Monitoring’s Ian Tang