Trump invites China’s Xi Jinping to attend inauguration: Report

WASHINGTON - US President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration in January, CBS News reported on Dec 11, citing multiple sources.

The invitation to the Jan 20 inauguration in Washington occurred in early November, shortly after the Nov 5 presidential election, and it was not clear if it had been accepted, CBS reported.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump said in an interview with NBC News conducted on Dec 6 that he got along “very well” with Mr Xi and that they have “had communication as recently as this week”.

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

Trump has said he will impose

an additional 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods

unless Beijing does more to stop the trafficking of the highly addictive narcotic fentanyl.

He also threatened tariffs in excess of 60 per cent 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.

Separately on Dec 11, China’s US Ambassador Xie Feng read a letter from Mr Xi at a US-China Business Council gala in Washington, in which the Chinese leader said Beijing was prepared to stay in communication with the US.

“We should choose dialogue over confrontation and win-win cooperation over zero-sum games,” Mr Xi said in the letter.

Mr Xie added that the two countries should not decouple supply chains.

But US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said in a pre-recorded video address that China at times tried to “sugar-coat” challenging and competitive relations.

“No amount of happy talk can obscure our profound differences,” Mr Burns said. REUTERS