Beijing resorted to a linguistic artifice to allow Marco Rubio to attend the upcoming US-China summit. The US secretary of state is under sanctions imposed by Beijing, but the Chinese government changed the transliteration of his name, allowing him to accompany Donald Trump.
Marco Rubio/PHOTO: Profimedia
Shortly before Rubio took office in January 2025, the Chinese government and state media began using a different Chinese character for the first syllable of his surname, changing the transliteration from “Ru” to “Lu,” The Guardian writes.
Beijing has twice imposed sanctions on the US official, as he has vehemently supported human rights in China.
So China said on Tuesday, May 12, that it would not ban Rubio from entering the country because of his past actions.
“The sanctions target Mr. Rubio for his statements and actions regarding China while he was a US senator”Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said.
Asked last year about the language shift, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said that “had not noticed this, but that he would check”according to Chinese state media.
Mao added that Rubio's English name is more important.
It is not uncommon for Western public figures to have multiple Chinese transliterations of their names. The process of translating Western names into Chinese characters is not always standardized.
And US President Donald Trump has two Chinese names. The Chinese government and state media name it “telangpu”, but he is also often referred to as “chuanpu”, a slightly different transliteration.
Several top executives will accompany Trump to China
The White House on Monday released a list of 16 top CEOs invited to accompany President Trump on his visit to China this week, Yahoo Finance reports.
Therefore, the delegation will include several CEOs of American companies with major interests in China, including Kelly Ortberg from Boeing, Brian Sikes from Cargill, Elon Musk, Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron Technology and Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.
Trump's visit to China is an important test for the fragile trade truce between the two countries, after a mutual trade war in which both sides imposed tariffs that at times exceeded 100%.
