Sun Tzu, A Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher who lived approximately in the 5th Century BC, is best known for his famous book ‘The Art Of War’. In it, he wrote a proverb well-known to the world even today – “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer”. US President-elect Donald Trump seems to have taken a leaf out of Sun Tzu’s book when he invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to his inaugural ceremony in Washington DC scheduled for January 20th.
President Xi, who perhaps is also familiar with Sun Tzu works, read right through Donald Trump’s invite and has politely declined it, as per the latest reports.
Donald Trump’s unprecedented decision to invite the Chinese President astonished officials in Washington and many others beyond. “A foreign leader has never attended the inauguration of a US President,” said the US State Department after hours of looking up official records dating back to 1874.
“It is, however, common for Ambassadors and other diplomats to attend the President’s swearing-in ceremony,” the US State Department added.
Amid all the hustle and bustle at the White House – and chaos behind the scenes – Donald Trump’s spokesperson Karoline Leavitt decided to give an interview to Fox News. Confirming the invite to Xi Jinping, Ms Leavitt said “This is an example of President Trump creating an open dialogue with leaders of countries that are not just allies but our adversaries and our competitors too.”
She also said that an invite for Donald Trump’s oath taking ceremony was sent to several other foreign leaders besides just Xi Jinping, but did not reveal who they were. It is not known yet if these “other invites” were sent on the same day as the one extended to Xi Jinping, or after Washington learnt about the Chinese President’s decision not to attend.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, officials in Beijing have remained tight-lipped over the issue. President Xi though, had, as recently as Tuesday, warned Washington about the expected tariff, trade, and tech wars once Trump becomes President. Expecting economic trouble in the weeks and months ahead, President Xi held a crucial meeting with heads of 10 major international organisations, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Beijing.
“There will be no winners,” he cautioned the United States in his speech at that meeting while he spoke about tariff hikes, tech-bans, and trade clampdowns that Donald Trump has vowed to impose on China once he takes charge.
With such war of words and aggressive posturing by both Trump and Xi, the former’s decision to invite the Chinese President for his inauguration ceremony does indeed seem both misplaced and rather unusual.
Donald Trump has blown hot and cold in his views about Xi Jinping – calling him “a brilliant guy” on one occasion, and describing him as his nemesis on another. An invite sent, as one would, to an ally, on the one hand, and calling China “the greatest threat” on the other.
Speaking about President Xi in his pre-election podcast with Joe Rogan, Trump had 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 “biggest threat to the world” and labelled China as the “threat of the century”.
Donald Trump has also appointed Marco Rubio as his Secretary of State and Mike Walz as his National Security Adviser – both staunch critics of China who have kept a hawk’s eye on every move Beijing makes – so much so, that the Chinese government has placed sanctions on Marco Rubio, and in 2020 had banned him from ever entering the country again – something Beijing would need to reconsider when he takes office as Secretary of State.
Weeks before the Trump Administration takes over, NSA-designate Mike Waltz has already urged President-elect Trump to “urgently end the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East in order to counter the greater threat from the Chinese Communist Party”.
All eyes are now on what will be Trump’s next move after the invitation snub, and what will be Xi Jinping’s counter. The endgame is far from sight.