Secretary of State Marco Rubio was allowed to join President Donald Trump for his critical China summit after being previously sanctioned as a senator — all because of a slight name-translation change.
After Rubio took office in Trump’s Cabinet last year, the Chinese government and official media transliterated the first syllable of his surname differently, replacing it with another character for “lu” as a workaround. The change means Rubio can attend this week’s high-stakes meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Agence France-Presse reported.
The Chinese government sanctioned Rubio in 2020 when he represented Florida as a senator in a mostly symbolic move. He and 10 other U.S. citizens — including fellow Republican senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley and Pat Toomey — received sanctions in a reciprocal rivalry over several disagreements, including China’s treatment of its minority Uyghur population and a controversial national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong at the time.
Such sanctions could have affected whether or not Rubio would be able to join Trump on Air Force One, though a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy said the sanctions would not have blocked Rubio’s travel.
Trending
Two diplomats told AFP they believe Rubio was previously sanctioned under another spelling of his surname, and the change constituted a loophole to allow China to bypass those limitations.
When asked last year about the linguistic change, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told Chinese state media that she “had not noticed it but would look into it,” The Guardian reported. Mao said that Rubio’s English name was more important.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rubio has given mixed commentary about China since his sanctioning. In his Senate confirmation hearings last year, he described China as the “most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.”
But the secretary of state more recently described the relationship between the two countries as “the most important relationship for us to manage” during an interview with Fox News that aired Wednesday.
“It’s a big, powerful country. It’s going to continue to grow, but we’re going to have interests of ours that are going to be in conflict with interests of theirs,” Rubio said. “To avoid wars and maintain peace and stability in the world, we’re going to have to manage those.”
Author
