Trump Invites China’s Xi Jinping To Attend His inauguration

US President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly invited his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to participate in his presidential inauguration next month.

Sources revealed that Trump extended the invitation to Xi in early November, shortly after the election, but it remains unclear whether the Chinese president has accepted, CBS News reported late Wednesday.

The report said that officials are making plans for more foreign dignitaries to attend the swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20.

According to Trump’s team, there are more leaders who may attend the presidential inauguration.

“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, according to CBS News.

Trump said in an interview with NBC News conducted on Friday that he “got along with very well” with Xi and that they had “had communication as recently as this week.”

It would be unprecedented for a leader of China, a top U.S. geopolitical rival, to attend a U.S. presidential inauguration.

Trump has named numerous China hawks to key posts in his incoming administration, including Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state.

The report of the invitation came days after Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods.

The president-elect has 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 also 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 pledge to slap additional tariffs on Chinese goods over fentanyl flows could drag the world’s top two economies into a mutually destructive tariff war.

The invitation also comes at a time when the US set a Jan. 19 deadline, the day before the inauguration, for ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, to sell the social media app or face a ban in the country.

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