JD Vance Holds Talks With China's Vice President Before Trump Inauguration
Source: Newsweek
Published Jan 19, 2025 at 4:05 PM EST | Updated Jan 19, 2025 at 5:13 PM EST
Vice President-elect JD Vance met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Sunday as he gears up to assume his responsibilities and office, welcoming the foreign official to the United States.
Why It Matters
Vance and President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in on Monday to commence the second Trump administration. Trump spent much of his first administration targeting China on trade and other issues, and he resumed talks of tariffs and trade concerns during his 2024 presidential bid. Beijing has also come under increased scrutiny as the TikTok ban briefly went into effect Saturday night.
Congress last year passed legislation that would ban the app's U.S. operation by January 19 unless it divested from its Chinese-based owner ByteDance, citing national security concerns. Congressional members argued that companies based in China must turn over data if requested by the ruling government, raising concerns about what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would do with the user data of the 170 million Americans on the app. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban last week in a non-binding per curiam ruling.
However, Trump gave assurances to TikTok's CEO Shou Zi Chew that he would seek to reverse the ban, and the app resumed service on Sunday afternoon. The company has thanked Trump repeatedly and publicly, including a message upon opening the app that said it resumed service "as a result of President Trump's efforts."
Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/jd-vance-talks-china-vice-president-trump-inauguration-2017405
One of the GOP's broken-record mantras was - "'The Chinese Communist Party'...(click)...the 'Chinese Communist Party'...(click)... the 'Chinese Communist Party'...(click)..." until suddenly it's okay.