President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly extended an invitation to China’s President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. Trump referred vaguely to an invitation he sent to “a certain leader,” which he said that he had done against the advice of some of his people. Commenting on this at the Institute for China-America Studies’ annual conference in Washington on Dec. 12 , Embassy Minister Qiu Wenxing said, “If that report is real, it shows that the President-elect’s transition team attaches great performance to the working relations between the Presidents, and between the Chinese government and the transition team,” without indicating whether President Xi Jinping would attend. “I think that is a welcoming signal. We’re looking forward to working … with the transition team … that is our goal, to make this relationship a smooth transition, and then early next year we can have a good start.”