President-elect Donald Trump has spent years hurling insults toward China — but that didn't stop him from reportedly extending an invitation to its president.
Trump extended an invitation for Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration next month shortly after he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris, CBS News reported Wednesday night, citing multiple sources. Officials are already planning for other foreign dignitaries to attend as well.
It wasn't immediately known whether Xi has indicated whether he'll attend.
Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whom Trump has publicly praised and cozied up to, is also weighing whether to attend, according to the report.
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Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for the Trump transition team, told the network: "World leaders are lining up to meet with President Trump because they know he will soon return to power and restore peace through American strength around the globe."
Experts have called Xi a dictator — including President Joe Biden — with Clifford May, founder of the Foundation of Defense of Democracies writing: "Mr. Xi, over the more than 20 years he’s ruled, has only become more dictatorial."
Xi had Chinese lawmakers amend the country's constitution in 2018 to remove term limits and impose strict censorship and surveillance measures.
"He has genocidally imposed his dictatorship on the peoples of Tibet and East Turkistan, the latter better known by its Mandarin name, Xinjiang, which means 'New Frontier,' indicating that it’s an imperial possession," wrote Clifford. "He’s subjugated the people of Hong Kong in flagrant violation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration that was meant to guarantee the former British colony some freedoms and rights under the principle of 'one country, two systems,' after it transferred to Chinese Communist Party control in 1997."
Orban is also widely considered an authoritarian leader who "seized control of nearly all the levers of power in Hungary since he became prime minister in 2010, effectively turning the country into an electoral autocracy," wrote The European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank.
The invite also comes as Trump ratchets up rhetoric and threats of steep tariffs on China.