President Trump arrived Wednesday night in Beijing, where he was welcomed by a military band, an honor guard, hundreds of Chinese youth waving flags and China’s vice president, Han Zheng.
Such carefully designed receptions for foreign leaders telegraph Beijing’s attitude toward these visits. Sometimes Beijing sends a lower-level official to convey displeasure or distance. Sometimes they send someone senior and influential to signal a high degree of respect.
This time, they sent someone who is high-level but whose position is mostly that of a figurehead — which could be a way to send a layered message.
“Beijing sent Han Zheng to Trump’s inauguration and knows that his title of vice president, even though it is a ceremonial role, will impress the status-conscious American president,” said Julian Gewirtz, a China historian at Columbia University who served in senior China policy roles in the National Security Council under President Biden.
“It’s an example of how, throughout this summit, China is hoping to trade symbolism for substance — using protocol and Trump’s preference for pageantry to hold off a return to economic escalation and buy time for China,” he said.
In his role as vice president, Mr. Han is often sent to formal diplomatic events, such as the coronation ceremony in Britain of King Charles III or Mr. Trump’s second inauguration as president. But Mr. Han, who stepped down from the elite Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of power in China’s ruling Communist Party, now has little influence over policymaking.
The choice of Mr. Han could also signal how Beijing is approaching a visit by the leader of the most powerful country in the world, but who now faces a more defiant and assertive Beijing. It would suggest that Mr. Trump could be feted with the honors of a formal state visit but not given special treatment beyond that of another other power in the world.
“In Chinese diplomacy, protocol is substance, especially during a state visit,” said Evan Medeiros, a professor of Asian studies at Georgetown University who served as an Asia adviser to President Barack Obama. “The arrival ceremony is the first threshold in the protocol game; it is how China signals respect.”
Mr. Han’s presence is a slight downgrade from the welcome Mr. Trump received in 2017, some analysts say. During that state visit, Mr. Trump was greeted by Yang Jiechi, China’s top diplomat and a member of the Politburo, the party’s second-most powerful body. At the time, Xinhua, China’s official news agency, described the presence of such a “heavyweight” as a sign of “the importance China attaches to the meeting” between the two leaders.
“If they sent someone who is a Politburo member, it means they really think this is so important and you are our most important guest,” said Wei-Feng Tzeng, an associate research fellow at National Chengchi University in Taipei who has researched Chinese diplomatic protocol.
Still, U.S. presidents have recently enjoyed higher-level airport greeters than have leaders of other countries considered closer to Beijing. During a state visit in 2024, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was received by the state councilor Shen Yiqin, whose position is lower than Mr. Han’s.
China has made these subtle changes in reception before. In 2014, President Obama visited Beijing amid his “pivot” to Asia, which involved shoring up alliances in the region to constrain a more-assertive China. He was treated to a more standard protocol of a ministry-level official: the head of China’s foreign ministry, Wang Yi.
Compare that to 2009, when Mr. Obama became the first U.S. president to visit China during his first year in office. He was greeted by Xi Jinping himself, who was also vice president but a member of the Politburo Standing Committee. At the time, he was already seen as the likely successor to Hu Jintao as China’s leader.
Lily Kuo is a China correspondent for The Times, based in Taipei.
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