The Chinese government reportedly altered the spelling of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s name ahead of his trip to Beijing with President Trump as a “diplomatic workaround” to sanctions barring him from entering the country.
Rubio was hit with sanctions in 2020, while serving as a Republican US senator from Florida, after he accused China’s communist government of human rights abuses related to its treatment of Uyghurs, a minority ethnic group.
In January 2025, after Rubio was named secretary of state, the Chinese government and state media began transliterating the first syllable of his surname with a different Chinese character for “lu,” Agence France-Presse reported on Wednesday.
The Chinese government reportedly altered the spelling of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s name ahead of his trip to Beijing with President Trump as a “diplomatic workaround” to sanctions barring him from entering the country. AFP via Getty Images
President Trump was greeted in Beijing by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, right. APMultiple diplomats viewed the change as an immediate way for China to avoid implementing its sanctions against Rubio, who is banned from entering the country under the previous spelling of his name.
“The sanctions target Mr. Rubio’s words and deeds when he served as a US senator concerning China,” Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu told the outlet.
The White House referred The Post to the State Department, which declined to comment.
Rubio was among the top US officials to join Trump on his trip to China for a summit with President Xi Jinping.
Rubio was hit with sanctions in 2020. REUTERS
The New York Post front cover for May 14, 2026.
Trump is scheduled to be in Beijing for one full day.
He will visit Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Thursday, followed by a bilateral meeting with Xi and a state dinner, before meeting his Chinese counterpart again on Friday and flying back to Washington.
Trump told reporters Tuesday that he and Xi plan to discuss “a lot of different things,” but mainly trade.
The president downplayed plans to discuss the Iran war with Xi, whose country buys more than 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports, giving Beijing major leverage in peace talks.
Meanwhile, the Chinese president is expected to push Trump to tone down US support for Taiwan, a longstanding flashpoint in the US-China relationship.
The trip is the first time a US president has set foot on Chinese soil in nearly a decade.
