By Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping and other foreign leaders to his inauguration next month in Washington, a Trump transition spokesperson said on Thursday, but experts said that Xi was not likely to attend.
Asked if Xi had responded, Karoline Leavitt told Fox News in an interview that was “to be determined”. She did not name the other world leaders who were also invited.
“This is an example of President Trump creating an open dialogue with leaders of countries that are not just our allies but our adversaries and our competitors, too,” Leavitt added.
It would be unprecedented for a leader of China, a top U.S. geopolitical rival, to attend a U.S. presidential inauguration and China experts said it was highly unlikely that Xi would come to Washington.
“This is diplomatic theater, nothing more. Other heads of state, let alone Xi Jinping, haven’t attended U.S. Presidential inaugurations,” said Scott Kennedy, a China specialist at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Trump, in remarks to CNBC on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, said his administration would be having “a lot of talks with China.”
“We have a good relationship with China. I have a surprising relationship. Now, when the COVID came in, I sort of cut it off. That was a step too far,” he said.
“But we’ve been talking and discussing with President Xi, some things, and others, other world leaders, and I think we’re going to do very well all around.”
The Kremlin separately on Thursday said that it had not received an invitation to attend the Jan. 20 inauguration.
The offer for Xi to attend Trump’s swearing-in was extended in early November, shortly after the Nov. 5 presidential election, according to CBS News, which first reported the invitation on Wednesday.
CBS said Hungary’s far-right leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has a warm relationship with Trump and visited him in Florida this week, was “still considering” whether to attend,
The Chinese embassy has not responded to a Reuters request for comment.
TENSION OVER TRADE, TAIWAN
Trump has named numerous China hawks to key posts in his incoming administration, including Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state.
Trump has also said he will impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing does more to stop trafficking of the highly addictive narcotic fentanyl. He threatened tariffs in excess of 60% on Chinese goods while on the campaign trail.
In late November, China’s state media warned Trump that his tariff threat could drag the world’s top two economies into a mutually destructive tariff war.
On Wednesday, China’s U.S. Ambassador Xie Feng read a letter from Xi to a U.S.-China Business Council gala in Washington, in which the Chinese leader said Beijing was prepared to stay in communication with the U.S.
“We should choose dialogue over confrontation and win-win cooperation over zero-sum games,” Xi said in the letter.
Other China experts said China could respond to Trump’s invitation by offering to send a lower level official, but would likely demand that self-governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, not be invited.
Taiwan, which the United States does not officially recognize, is likely to be uneasy about Trump’s invitation to Xi, said Bonnie Glaser, a Taiwan expert at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Trump’s electoral win sparked hope in Taiwan that he will pursue a tough line with China but also anxiety given his comments that the island should pay the U.S. for its defense.
Two senior members of Taiwan’s government have been in the United States this week to meet people connected to Trump’s transition team, five sources told Reuters.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Susan Heavey, David Brunnstrom and Michael Martina; Editing by Alex Richardson, Don Durfee, Alexandra Hudson)
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