Xi Jinping invited to Donald Trump’s inauguration—but is he likely to attend?

America's president-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese president Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration next month, multiple media reports have claimed on Wednesday, 11 December.

In addition to Xi, the president-elect's team has raised the possibility of hosting other leaders at the Capitol on 20 January 2025, among them Hungary's far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán.

However, US state department records dating back to 1874 show that no foreign leader has ever attended a transfer-of-power ceremony. So, will this be a first?

Trump's growing number of nominees for important positions in his administration remain sharp critics of the Chinese government, including Senator Marco Rubio, his pick to be secretary of state, and incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz.

Trump himself has threatened to increase tariffs on goods from China and the US has imposed a deadline of 19 January for TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the social media app or face a ban in the US.

Several world leaders have trekked to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump ahead of his taking up office, including Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. Argentina's president, Javier Milei, has also been granted private audiences with the president-elect.

Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, was the first world leader to host Trump overseas since he won the 2024 election, when he invited the president-elect to attend the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Also present on the occasion were Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni, Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskyy and Prince William from the UK. 

“Why would President Xi want to attend Trump’s inauguration? Does it reflect a kind of ‘royal prerogative’ on Trump’s part, to have other leaders attend and acknowledge his ‘crowning?’ China would be sensitive to such an appearance,” Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of politics and international relations at East China Normal University was quoted as saying in a report in the South China Morning Post on Thursday, 12 December.

“Generally, these kinds of visits require careful protocol negotiations and security arrangements. Can these be accomplished before Trump has gained control of the state department and other government organs?” Mahoney wondered aloud.

The then-ambassador from China to the US Zhou Wenzhong attended Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. But in 2021, Beijing only stated that the Chinese embassy had received an invitation to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration and “extended congratulations” to him without confirming whether it had sent any officials.

“I noticed that the US government has reiterated many times that it only invites diplomatic envoys posted in the country to attend the presidential inauguration ceremony, and does not invite or encourage other countries or regions to send delegations to the ceremony,” said Hua Chunying, then a spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry and now vice-foreign minister in 2017.

Chinese authorities have sent the vice-president or other high-ranking officials to attend the inauguration of foreign national leaders in recent years.

On 20 October, vice-president Han Zheng attended the inauguration of Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto in Jakarta as Xi’s special representative. Beijing sent its vice-chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Tie Ning, as Xi’s “special envoy” to the inauguration of Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum on 1 October.

Still, a Xi appearance at the Trump inauguration looks unlikely.

Meanwhile, netizens wonder, what about Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who reportedly backed Trump in the race over Kamala Harris? Did he get an invite too?