China's Vice President Han Zheng to attend Trump inauguration

Zero chance that Xi Jinping would allow himself to be potted plant at Donald Trump’s triumphal coronation. At the same time, ensuring that China extends enough courtesy to avoid bruising Trump’s ego,

Russel wrote

It indicates that China is willing to talk, negotiate and make efforts to reach deals,

Sun wrote

If Xi were to send Cai Qi, it would be taken as a signal that the Chinese value stability and good relations with the Trump administration,

Hoo said

The Chinese are quite keen to have a sense of what Trump’s administration will do, and having access to senior members, or indeed Trump himself, in order to make a better gauge,

Hoo said

We haven't had a senior Chinese envoy come to any of the inauguration,

Dennis Wilder, a former White House China adviser currently a professor at Georgetown University, told CNA,

If things don't turn out (well)... that's fine because he's the vice president, not somebody with any significant influence,

Hoo said

They (Beijing) don’t know the Trump team. They don’t know these players. They don’t know what people would say in the immediate aftermath of (Trump) meetings with Xi,

Wilder said

Trump can’t be trusted to stick to the script anyway,

Mahoney said

It would be unprecedented for a leader of a major power like China (also a US rival), to actually intend to attend the inauguration,

said Hoo, adding

Han Zheng stands in (for Xi) at international meetings that he decides not to attend - this is the role that the Chinese vice president plays in the leadership,

Wilder said

The Chinese also want to send a signal that (they) do not want to be seen as being unnecessarily problematic or difficult,

Hoo said,

There could be a great deal of positive value in these interactions,

said Wilder

Sometimes, when Xi’s confidants have been used for high-level positions and missions, they have been targeted by foreign powers in order to embarrass Xi personally,

said Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of politics at East China Normal University

It’s most likely a thankless mission, much less an opportunity to create goodwill,

Mahoney said of the upcoming inauguration

We are breaking precedent with this. In that sense, it's quite interesting.”

He adds

The Chinese have (traditionally) generally been very keen on (adhering to) protocol in diplomatic relations,

he said

I certainly don't think there's any attempt to reset US-China relations for a very simple reason - given the kind of political climate right now in the US, it's difficult for any US politician, and certainly any US leader, to try to reset the relationship (with China),

he said

I don’t expect anything concrete out of Han’s trip to Washington,

said Zhiqun Zhu, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Bucknell University in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania

China has no established tradition of letting the president attend other heads of state’s inauguration ceremonies,

said Zhou Bo, a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing

Some of the appointees by Trump seem hawkish on China but since they work for Trump, I don’t think they will override Trump’s policies,

he told VOA