Rubio uses 'hilarious' name loophole to get around China sanctions

Thomas Kika
5h
Secretary of State Marco Rubio walks outside the Great Hall of the People on the day of a state banquet with U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Beijing, China, May 14, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is supposed to be barred from entering China due to past sanctions, prompting him to use a "translation loophole" to accompany President Donald Trump to Beijing, per NOTUS, with one expert calling the situation "hilarious."

In 2020, Rubio, then a sitting senator from Florida, was caught up in a wave of sanctions from China, which NOTUS described as a "mostly symbolic move" retaliating against various U.S. citizens in response to "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." A number of other Republican lawmakers were also targeted in the move, including Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley and Pat Toomey.

While this predicament could have potentially blocked him from entering China, as the sanctions have not technically been lifted, he was able to join Trump this week, seemingly because of an odd loophole. Since he joined the Trump administration last year, the Chinese government began translating "the first syllable of his surname differently, replacing it with another character for 'lu' as a workaround," NOTUS explained.

"Two diplomats told AFP they believe Rubio was previously sanctioned under another spelling of his surname, and the change constituted a loophole to allow China to bypass those limitations," the outlet explained in a Thursday report. "When asked last year about the linguistic change, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told Chinese state media that she 'had not noticed it but would look into it,' The Guardian reported. Mao said that Rubio’s English name was more important."

On X, a Chinese user shared a clip of Trump and Rubio at a recent event in Beijing, where the secretary's nameplate was visible.

"Judging from the on-site Chinese nameplate that reads 'From Rubio' rather than 'Rubio,' Rubio indeed is not Rubio," the user explained, as automatically translated by X.

Luke de Pulford is a human rights activist focused on abuses committed by China. Responding to the user's original post, he called the situation "hilarious."

"This is hilarious. They have literally changed Rubio’s name to get around the fact that he remains sanctioned (and therefore barred from) China," de Pulford wrote.

In another post later on, de Pulford explained the significance of this move from China.

"This might seem like a trite detail, but it reveals a lot: 1. We all know China’s sanctions are arbitrary, in the main," he explained. "The politics comes first, the law second. Many international sanctions have no obvious legal basis. 2. Beijing cares SO MUCH about the principle of the “sanctions” imposed on [Rubio] that they’d rather have this wacky charade than lose face. They could have just left it. 3. Someone came up with this Schrödinger’s sanctions idea thinking it would protect the Party’s unchallengeable authority, and project strength. Shows you how skewed the lens is."

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