Sun Tzu, a Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher who lived around the 5th century BC, is best known for his famous book ‘The Art of War’. In this he wrote a saying which is still famous all over the world – ‘Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.’ US President-elect Donald Trump appears to have taken a leaf out of Sun Tzu’s book when he invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to his inauguration ceremony in Washington DC on January 20.
According to the latest reports, President Xi, who is probably also familiar with Sun Tzu’s works, read Donald Trump’s invitation and politely declined it.
Donald Trump’s unprecedented decision to invite the Chinese president took Washington and many others by surprise. “No foreign leader has ever attended the inauguration of a U.S. president,” the U.S. State Department said after reviewing hours of official records dating back to 1874.
“However, it is common for ambassadors and other diplomats to attend presidential inaugurations,” the US State Department said.
Amid all the hustle and bustle at the White House and chaos behind the scenes – Donald Trump’s spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt decided to give an interview to Fox News. Confirming the invitation to Xi Jinping, Ms. Levitt said, “This is an example of President Trump having open conversations with leaders of countries that are not only our allies but also our adversaries and our competitors.”
He also said that apart from Xi Jinping, invitations had been sent to many other foreign leaders for Donald Trump’s swearing-in ceremony, but he did not say who they were. It is not yet known whether these “other invitations” were sent on the same day as the one to Xi Jinping, or were sent after Washington became aware of the Chinese president’s decision not to attend.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, officials in Beijing are maintaining silence on the issue. However, President Xi as recently as Tuesday warned Washington about expected tariff, trade and tech wars after Trump becomes president. Anticipating an economic crisis in the coming weeks and months, President Xi held an important meeting in Beijing with the heads of 10 major international organizations, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“There will be no winners,” he warned the United States in his speech at that meeting, while he talked about the tariff hikes, techno-bans and trade sanctions that Donald Trump imposed on China during his election campaign. Vowed to implement.
With such a war of words and aggressive stances by both Trump and Xi, Trump’s decision to invite the Chinese President for his inauguration ceremony indeed seems both wrong and unusual.
Donald Trump has exposed hot and cold in his views of Xi Jinping – on one occasion calling him “a great guy”, and on another occasion describing him as his enemy. As one would expect, on the one hand an invitation was sent to one’s ally and on the other hand China was described as the “biggest threat”.
Speaking about President Xi in his pre-election podcast with Joe Rogan, Trump said, “He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. I mean, he’s a brilliant guy, whether you like it.” Or not.” But in two other interviews he called Xi Jinping “the greatest threat to the world” and described China as “the threat of the century.”
Donald Trump has appointed Marco Rubio as his Secretary of State and Mike Walz as his National Security Advisor – both staunch critics of China, who keep an eye on Beijing’s every move – so much so, that the Chinese government has Restrictions have also been imposed. Marco Rubio, and banned him from re-entering the country in 2020 – something Beijing will need to reconsider when he takes over as secretary of state.
Just weeks before the Trump administration took office, NSA-designate Mike Waltz had already urged President-elect Trump to “immediately end the conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East to counter the greater threat from the Chinese Communist Party.”
Now all eyes are on what will be Trump’s next step after rejecting the invitation and what will be Xi Jinping’s response. The end game is far from sight.
