Washington: Chinese President Xi Jinping is unlikely to attend the inauguration ceremony of US President-elect Donald Trump on January 20, despite receiving an invitation, CBS News reported, citing sources.
Instead, China’s ambassador to the United States and his spouse are expected to represent Beijing at the event, adhering to standard diplomatic protocol. CBS News also noted that other officials from Beijing might join the ambassador.
Inauguration officials have reportedly assigned staff to manage diplomatic protocols for the event, ensuring proper coordination, the outlet added.
However, the Chinese embassy in Washington has declined to comment on the matter, and also the Trump transition did not reply to a request for comment, a per CBS News.
Meanwhile, Trump said on Thursday morning (local time), “We have a good relationship with China. I have a good relationship. We’ve been talking and discussing with President Xi some things.”
He declined to go into detail and was not asked specifically about Xi and the inauguration.
The invitation comes at an already tense time in the US-China relationship.The US intelligence community recently disclosed a far-reaching hack of eight US telecom companies, assessing that Chinese actors had accessed the metadata of potentially millions of Americans, including high-ranking officials like Vice President-elect JD Vance.
With inputs from ANI
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