US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited China despite being under sanctions imposed by Beijing. This was made possible through a diplomatic workaround: China changed the transliteration of Rubio's surname.

Rubio accompanied President Donald Trump on his first trip to China. According to Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher, the Chinese government altered the spelling of Rubio's name in official documents to bypass the sanctions.

Chinese authorities and state media began using a different Chinese character for the first syllable of Rubio's surname shortly before he took office as Secretary of State in January 2025.

In March, China's Foreign Ministry indicated willingness to ease sanctions against Rubio if he were to travel with Trump for a summit in Beijing. Spokesperson Lin Jian stated that the sanctions were aimed at Rubio's words and deeds concerning China during his tenure as a US senator.

The sanctions date back to 2020, when Rubio spoke out against Beijing's crackdown in Hong Kong and criticized alleged abuses against the Uighur minority in Xinjiang. Rubio was also a proponent of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

Source: www.aljazeera.com