The Chinese leader who attended Trump’s inauguration?

China will send Vice President Han Zheng to the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump on Monday, the first time a senior Chinese leader will witness the swearing-in of a US president.

Trump had invited Chinese President Xi Jinping, among other leaders, a break with tradition since foreign leaders traditionally do not attend U.S. presidential inaugurations.

China has said it wants to work with the new US government to “find the right way for the two countries to get along in the new era.”

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 candidate for Secretary of State, has described China as “the largest and most advanced adversary the United States has ever faced.”

As president, Xi has never attended an inauguration or coronation ceremony and has instead chosen to send a representative on his behalf. China’s ambassador to the US attended the last two presidential inaugurations, in 2017 and 2021.

However, Beijing has sent vice presidents to such ceremonies elsewhere: Han attended the inauguration of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in October 2023. And his predecessor, Wang Qishan, was present at the inauguration. of the president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, in 2022, and of the president of Brazil, Lula da Silva. in 2023.

Xi’s decision to send Han to the United States is a sign that “he wants to put Trump in negotiation mode, but he doesn’t want to be a supporting player in Trump’s show on January 20,” says Neil Thomas, a fellow. of Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

Other foreign leaders who have been invited to the inauguration include Argentine President Javier Milei and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told US media that the invitation to Xi was an “example of how Trump creates an open dialogue with leaders of countries that are not only our allies but also our adversaries and competitors.”

It could also be an attempt by Trump to show the world that “he has the ability to influence Xi’s decision-making and that they have a special relationship,” says Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington.

Previous reports suggested that some Trump advisers wanted Cai Qi to attend. Widely seen as Xi’s right-hand man, Cai, 66, sits on the Communist Party’s seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, the Chinese equivalent of a cabinet.

The Financial Times quoted an anonymous source as saying Trump would be “unhappy” if the Chinese envoy present was “only at the level of Han or (Foreign Minister) Wang Yi.” The BBC has not been able to verify these claims.

But as vice president, Han, 70, occupies a “very important role in the Chinese state system” and the decision to send him “is a courtesy to Trump,” says Chong Ja-Ian, a non-resident scholar at Carnegie. Porcelain.

Han, who was appointed vice president in March 2023, is known as “number eight,” the most senior leader after the seven men of the Politburo Standing Committee.

Han had also been a member until October 2022, when Xi began a historic third term in power and appointed his most trusted deputies to the highest positions.

Before that, Han spent most of his political career in Shanghai, where he was born. In 2007, he served as an aide to Xi when the latter was party secretary in Shanghai, before taking the position himself in 2012.

Foreign affairs have been a key issue for him during his tenure as vice president. He led a group to promote the Belt and Road initiative, a key Chinese trade and infrastructure project, and headed a steering committee on the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

But the fact that Han is no longer part of the Politburo Standing Committee may have been a key consideration in Beijing’s decision to send him.

“If US-China relations worsen from the party’s perspective, Xi and the party will be able to show that they kept some distance from Trump,” Professor Chong said.

And it also helps that Han is not considered part of Xi’s inner circle, according to Thomas.

“Xi trusts Han enough to undertake this mission, but Han is not a key ally and could be blamed if it goes embarrassingly wrong.”

Additional reporting by BBC Monitoring’s Ian Tang