Trump Invites Xi Jinping to Inauguration

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration next month, CBS News reported on Wednesday, 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, as per CBS report.

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

Trump stated in an interview with NBC News that he "got along very well" with Xi and that they had "communicated as recently as this week."

It would be unprecedented for a leader of China, a top U.S. geopolitical rival, to attend a U.S. presidential inauguration.

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

The president-elect has stated he will impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing does more to stop trafficking of the highly addictive narcotic fentanyl. He also threatened tariffs over 60% on Chinese goods during his campaign.

In late November, China's state media warned Trump that his pledge for additional tariffs on Chinese goods over fentanyl flows could lead to a mutually destructive tariff war between the world's top two economies.

Separately on Wednesday, China's U.S. Ambassador Xie Feng read a letter from Xi at a U.S.-China Business Council gala in Washington. In the letter, the Chinese leader expressed that Beijing was prepared to maintain communication with the U.S.

"We should choose dialogue over confrontation and win-win cooperation over zero-sum games," Xi stated in the letter.

Xie added that the two nations should not decouple supply chains. However, Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to Beijing, remarked in a prerecorded video address that China occasionally attempted to "sugar coat" the challenging and competitive relations.

"No amount of happy talk can obscure our profound differences," Burns stated.