China Pakistan Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration ceremony in Washington, DC next month.
The invite was made in early November, shortly after Trump’s Election Day victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, US media reported on Wednesday.
It’s unclear whether Xi has accepted the invitation. A spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition team would not confirm or deny the report of Xi’s possible historic appearance at the Jan. 20 inauguration.
“World leaders are lining up to meet with President Trump because they know he will soon return to power and restore peace through American strength around the globe,” Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
State Department records dating back to 1874 indicate that no foreign leader has ever attended a presidential inauguration, according to CBS News.
Xi, 71, may not be the only world leader that attends the swearing-in ceremony.
Pakistan in the World – November 2024
The report of XI’s invite comes after Trump threatened to impose massive new tariffs on imports from China.
China-based ByteDance, the parent company TikTok, also faces a Jan. 19 – inauguration eve – deadline to sell the social media app or face a ban in the US.
China-based ByteDance asked a federal court to temporarily halt the law requiring TikTok to be sold or banned by Jan. 19 until the Supreme Court can review.
The emergency filing from TikTok’s lawyers came after a US appeals court sided with the feds to uphold the law.
That decision was a major setback for TikTok, which had argued that the law was unconstitutional and a violation of free speech.
Without a pause, attorneys for TikTok and ByteDance said the law would “shut down TikTok—one of the nation’s most popular speech platforms—for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users on the eve of a presidential inauguration.”
The companies also hinted at the possibility of receiving help from President-elect Trump – who attempted to ban TikTok during his first term in office but has recently said he no longer supports a ban.
An injunction would “give the incoming Administration time to determine its position—which could moot both the impending harms and the need for Supreme Court review,” TikTok and ByteDance said.
The Supreme Court has yet to say if it will take up the case.
Pakistan in the World – December 2024
