Donald Trump invited Chinese language President Xi Jinping to his inauguration

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US President-elect Donald Trump invited President Xi Jinping to his inauguration in January, an early signal of his intention to renew the high-level engagement with the Chinese language chief that marked his first time period.

Karoline Leavitt, the brand new White Home press secretary, informed Fox Information on Thursday that Trump wished to create an “open dialogue” with international locations that had been U.S. adversaries, not simply allies and companions.

“We noticed it in his first time period. He acquired a whole lot of criticism for this, but it surely led to world peace. He’s prepared to speak to anybody and he’ll all the time put America’s pursuits first,” Leavitt stated.

Leavitt stated it was “to be decided” whether or not Xi would settle for the invitation. The Chinese language embassy didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

This invitation comes as Beijing prepares for an escalation of the commerce warfare launched by Trump towards China in 2018. The American president-elect has already threatened to impose a 60 p.c tariff on imports from China, which might symbolize a pointy improve from the levies he imposed on the nation’s merchandise throughout his first time period.

Trump will take workplace as U.S.-China relations stay close to their worst state because the two international locations established diplomatic ties in 1979.

The USA is anxious about Chinese language navy exercise round Taiwan and coercive actions towards international locations just like the Philippines within the Indo-Pacific. China in flip accuses the USA of interfering in its inside affairs relating to Taiwan and is offended over U.S. export controls that goal to make it tougher for the Chinese language navy to make use of American expertise to modernize.

Trump has additionally chosen a number of extraordinarily hawkish officers to fill prime nationwide safety positions. He has introduced that he’ll nominate Sen. Marco Rubio, one among Congress’s most vocal China hawks, as secretary of state, and intends to appoint Mike Waltz, a Florida congressman and former Beret Inexperienced, as nationwide safety advisor on the White Home.

Trump had an advanced relationship with China throughout his first time period. He courted Xi in 2017 earlier than launching a commerce warfare the next 12 months. However he took a tricky stance on financial and safety points in 2020, accusing Beijing of being answerable for the Covid-19 pandemic, which emerged in Wuhan.

In latest months, Chinese language officers have desperately tried to find out what Trump desires to attain in his relationship with China and whether or not he desires to push for some kind of take care of Xi, significantly on commerce. A number of folks near the Trump crew stated they anticipated the brand new president to take a tricky strategy on commerce early in his time period to drive China to the negotiating desk.