Chinese President Xi Jinping is not expected to visit Washington next month as President-elect Donald Trump's inaugural guest, according to two sources familiar with the planning. CBS News first reported this Trump had personally invited Xi At the swearing-in ceremony immediately after Election Day.
China's ambassador to the US and his wife are expected to attend. incident of january 20As is standard practice. Sources told CBS News that additional officials from Beijing may join them.
CBS News has learned that inauguration officials have designated staff to handle diplomatic protocol at the festivities.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment. The Trump transition did not respond to a request for comment.
Asked Thursday morning whether Xi had RSVPed, incoming White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt told Fox News she didn't know, but confirmed that other world leaders had been invited.
“We have a good relationship with China. I have a good relationship with China,” Trump told CNBC this morning. “We are negotiating and discussing some things with President Xi.” He declined to go into details and was not asked specifically about Xi and the inauguration.
The invitation to Xi, which was extended outside formal diplomatic channels, surprised both Beijing and US allies. Chinese officials, accustomed to strict protocols and well aware of the power dynamics in US-China relations, were left wondering about Mr Trump's intentions.
According to, no head of state has attended a US inauguration State Department records That date is from 1874.
The invitation comes at an already tense time in US-China relations. The US intelligence community recently disclosed a far-reaching hack of eight US telecommunications companies, assessing that Chinese actors had potentially accessed the metadata of millions of Americans, including high-ranking officials like Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. were also included.
Senator Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee and now Trump's choice to be Secretary of State, It has been told CBS News' “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” described the breach as “a serious, outrageous and dangerous breach of our telecommunications systems across multiple companies. I'll leave it at that.”
Given the diverse views on China among members of the Trump team, many Western diplomats expressed surprise at the decision to invite Xi. Officials said this could be a source of tension within the administration and in geopolitical relations.
Contributed to this report.