The ‘Lu’ loophole: China hacks its own sanctions to welcome US state secretary Rubio

WASHINGTON, May 13 — Secretary of State Marco Rubio was heading Tuesday to Beijing with President Donald Trump despite being under Chinese sanctions – a breakthrough apparently made possible after China changed his name’s transliteration.

As a US senator, Rubio, now 54 and visiting China for the first time, fiercely championed human rights in China, which retaliated by imposing sanctions on him twice – adopting a tactic more often used by the United States against adversaries.

China found a diplomatic workaround after Trump named Rubio his secretary of state.

Shortly before he took office in January 2025, the Chinese government and official media began using a different Chinese character for “lu” to represent the first syllable in his surname.

Two diplomats said they believed that China made the change because Rubio was under sanctions, which included an entry ban, under the old spelling of his name.

The Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A State Department official confirmed only that Rubio was travelling with Trump. Rubio was seen boarding Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base.

Rubio, a Cuban-American who vociferously opposes communism, was the key author of congressional legislation that imposed wide sanctions on China over the alleged use of forced labour by the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority, and he has spoken out against Beijing’s clampdown in Hong Kong.

At his confirmation hearing as secretary of state, Rubio focused heavily on China, which he described as an unprecedented adversary.

But since taking office, Rubio has supported Trump who describes counterpart Xi Jinping as a friend and has focused on building a trade relationship while downplaying human rights.

Last year, however, Rubio brought relief to Taiwan when he said that the Trump administration would not negotiate over the self-governing democracy’s future to secure a trade deal with China. — AFP