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.