US President-elect Donald Trump invites China’s President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration next month, CBS News reports.
Shortly after the election, sources said that Trump invited Chinese President Xi in early November, but it was not clear whether he accepted the invitation. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately comment.
There is no record of any Chinese heads of state joining a US presidential transition ceremony. Since becoming China’s paramount leader, Xi has never attended such events personally in foreign countries, instead sending a special representative or envoy.
Meanwhile, it would generally take rounds of preparation for a Chinese president to visit the United States, a process that could span several months.
“World leaders are lining up to meet with President Trump because they know he will soon return to power and restore peace through American strength around the globe,” Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said.
Trump himself has threatened to increase tariffs on goods from China. The U.S. has imposed a deadline of Jan. 19, the eve of the inauguration, for TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the social media app or face a ban in the U.S. TikTok is fighting the ban in court — it lost a bid last week to block the ban but is appealing the case to the Supreme Court.
But Trump has also long believed that close leader-to-leader relationships are key to international deal-making. Since Election Day, world leaders have trekked to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, has also been granted private audiences with the president-elect.
Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, was the first world leader to host Trump overseas since he won the 2024 election. Also in attendance at the Paris reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prince William.
Trump was mostly unknown on the world stage at his first inauguration in 2017. This time, world leaders are treating Trump essentially as an incumbent.
