Beijing, China - Secretary of State Marco Rubio was due Wednesday in Beijing with President Donald Trump despite being under sanctions from China, whose new approach to him has included changing how his name is written.

As a US senator, Rubio fiercely criticized China's human rights record, and Beijing retaliated by imposing sanctions on him twice.

China said Tuesday it would not block Rubio, now 54 and visiting China for the first time, from entering on Air Force One with Trump, the first US president to visit the Asian power in nearly a decade.

"The sanctions target Mr. Rubio's words and deeds when he served as a US senator concerning China," Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said.

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China had already appeared to find a diplomatic workaround after Trump named Rubio his secretary of state and national security advisor.

Shortly before he took office in January 2025, the Chinese government and official media began transliterating the first syllable of his surname with a different Chinese character for "lu."

Two diplomats said they believed the change was an immediate way for China to avoid implementing its sanctions, as Rubio was banned from entering under the old spelling of his name.

A State Department official confirmed only that Rubio was traveling with Trump.

Rubio's presence on Air Force One quickly drew online attention for another reason after the White House released a photo of him lounging in a Nike track suit of the sort worn by Venezuela's ousted president Nicolas Maduro when US forces abducted him in January.

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 labor by the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority, charges denied by Beijing.

He has also spoken out against Beijing's clampdown in Hong Kong.

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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.

Last year, however, Rubio said the Trump administration would not negotiate over Taiwan's future to secure a trade deal with China.