Chinese leader Xi Jinping may not have personally accepted US President-elect Donald Trump’s invitation to his inauguration, but Beijing has taken the rare step of dispatching a top official to join the swearing-in ceremony in Washington.

Han Zheng will represent China at Donald Trump’s upcoming inauguration on Jan 20, marking an unprecedented senior-level attendance from Beijing.

China's leader Xi Jinping is sending a top envoy to attend President-elect Trump's inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Beijing confirmed. Why it matters: The "unprecedented" deployment of Xi's special representative,