BEIJING: Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met with tech tycoon Elon Musk and urged US firms to "seize the opportunity" to deepen economic ties with China, Beijing's state media said on Monday (Jan 20).

Mr Han said US firms were welcome in China during the sit-down in Washington with Mr Musk. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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.

Billionaires to have arrived at the Capitol Rotunda Monday morning include Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, billionaire Trump supporter Miriam Adelson, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and others.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping sent Vice President Han Zheng to the inauguration, an official whose seniority signals Beijing is ready to engage. After arriving in the U.S., Han wasted no time in doing just that.

Han Zheng, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s envoy at Trump’s Inauguration, discussed fentanyl, trade, and technology with Vance and Musk.

Han has used the visit to meet with members of the American business community, including Tesla CEO and close Trump associate Elon Musk, according to Chinese state agency Xinhua. Musk is widely thought to be seen by Beijing as more sympathetic to its interests than others in Trump’s orbit.

US President-elect Donald Trump invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend the inauguration after winning last year's presidential election. Xi has sent Han in his place.

Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng has held talks with the US vice-president-elect J.D. Vance and tech billionaire Elon Musk at separate meetings in Washington ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration, with both sides reaffirming their commitment to a "long and fruitful" relationship.

Good start, stable development of China-US relations to serve well-being of Chinese and American people, Han Zheng tells American businesses - Anadolu Ajansı

Trump proposed a deal that would rescue TikTok from being banned in the U.S. and the app is now back online for Americans. TikTok, of course, is own