During the 47th inauguration, Donald J. Trump was sworn in for his second term as president Jan. 20. The vice president of China, Han Zheng, attended the ceremony, marking China’s first ever appearance at a presidential inauguration. Zheng’s attendance wasn’t the only unusual occurrence, as a record-breaking number of multi-billionaires were in attendance as well.
Historically, Chinese officials generally have not attended American political events, assumingly due to differences in the governing bodies. But, this year Zheng attended the ceremony, causing skepticism to arise about his attendance.
“China’s decision to send Han, rather than its ambassador to Washington as it has in the past, appears to be a carefully calibrated signal that it is willing to improve relations with the U.S. while not leaving Xi exposed to criticism should ties worsen,” Associated Press (AP) staff writer Christopher Bodeen said. “Many of the most divisive bilateral issues involve trade, with Trump threatening to impose 60% tariffs on imports from China. But relations have also frayed over technology and China’s moves to assert its territorial claims in the South China Sea and over Taiwan.”
The kind of impact this attendance could have on relations between the two nations and in their individual political spheres has been a recent topic of discussion. Furthermore, the cause of this shift during Trump’s presidency has led to skepticism from reporters, such as Bodeen.
“Though Han often goes unnoticed due to his ranking in the Communist Party hierarchy, Xi apparently believes he is the man for the job when a subtle hand is needed to establish a positive atmosphere to avoid major pitfalls during Trump’s second term,” Bodeen said. “Beijing appears to have put considerable thought into how receptive Trump, who is known to be an admirer of Xi’s and who places great store in personal relationships, will be toward Han.”
Foreign officials were not the only powerful individuals in attendance. Various tech billionaires, many of which are among the richest U.S. residents, flooded exclusive, reserved seats at the inauguration. These included well-known names such as Tesla, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The sudden change has caused concerns to arise among working-class citizens.
“That’s a shift from tradition, especially for a president who has characterized himself as a champion of the working class,” Associated Press (AP) staff writer Ali Swenson said. “Seats so close to the president are usually reserved for the president’s family, past presidents and other honored guests.”
The sudden shift from tradition also caused alarm among other politicians, including former president Joe Biden, regarding potential impacts on government systems, policies and democracy.
“The inaugural display highlights the unusually direct role the world’s wealthiest people will likely have in the new administration,” Swenson said. “In his outgoing address, Biden warned that the U.S. was becoming an oligarchy of tech billionaires wielding dangerous levels of power and influence on the nation.”
In the face of controversy, Trump has continued to stand beside his assertion that the attendance and donations of the billionaires in attendance will not impact working-class Americans through donation-based influence.
“They’re not going to get anything from me,” Trump said. “I don’t need money, but I do want the nation to do well, and they’re smart people and they create a lot of jobs.”
