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.

Vice President Han Zheng, China’s representative at Donald Trump's inauguration, is a trusted adviser to President Xi Jinping and a long-time survivor of Chinese politics who rose from toiling on a collective farm and in factories to becoming one of the most powerful people in the country.