Rubio, with new Chinese name, heads to Beijing despite sanctions
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio fiercely championed human rights in China as a US senator.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio headed to Beijing on May 12 with US President Donald Trump despite being under Chinese sanctions – a breakthrough apparently made possible after China changed the transliteration of his name.
As a US senator, Mr Rubio fiercely championed human rights in China, which retaliated by imposing sanctions on him twice – adopting a tactic more often used by the US against adversaries.
China said on May 12 it would not block Mr Rubio, now 54 and visiting China for the first time, from entering on Air Force One with Mr Trump, the first US president to visit the Asian power in nearly a decade.
Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said: “The sanctions target Mr Rubio’s words and deeds when he served as a US senator concerning China.”
China had already appeared to find a diplomatic workaround after Mr Trump named Mr Rubio his secretary of state and national security adviser.
Shortly before he took office in January 2025, the Chinese government and official media began using a different Chinese character for “lu” to represent the first syllable in his surname.
Two diplomats said they believed that China made the change because Mr Rubio was under sanctions, which included an entry ban, under the old spelling of his name.
A US State Department official confirmed only that Mr Rubio was travelling with Mr Trump.
Mr Rubio’s presence on Air Force One quickly drew online attention for another reason after the White House released a photo of him lounging in a Nike tracksuit of the sort worn by Venezuela’s ousted president Nicolas Maduro when the US forces snatched him in January.
Mr Rubio, a Cuban-American who vociferously opposes communism, was the key author of congressional legislation that imposed wide sanctions on China over the alleged use of forced labour by the mostly Muslim Uighur minority, charges denied by Beijing.
He has also spoken out against Beijing’s clampdown in Hong Kong.
At his confirmation hearing as secretary of state, Mr Rubio focused heavily on China, which he described as an unprecedented adversary.
But since taking office, Mr Rubio has supported Mr Trump who describes counterpart Xi Jinping as a friend and has focused on building a trade relationship while downplaying human rights.
In 2025, however, Mr Rubio brought relief to Taiwan when he said that the Trump administration would not negotiate over the self-governing democracy’s future to secure a trade deal with China. AFP
