It would even go against the norms of protocol to let VP Pence sign the agreement. Because China does not have a Vice President.

A comparable scenario is like the U.S. Secretary of State going to China to sign a formal agreement but his Chinese counterpart does not sign it. But lets a vice consul be the Chinese signatory.

The Chinese are laughing at President Trump and his team of economic-&-diplomatic advisers who do not know also protocol and the norms of diplomatic conduct.

Pls read:

China’s State TV Gives Trump Live Airtime for Trade Deal Signing

U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks at the signing of the phase one trade deal were given almost 20 minutes of live airtime on Chinese state television, beaming him across the nation in the middle of the night.

State broadcaster CCTV and its English network CGTN carried a live feed from around 00:45 a.m. Thursday local time, with the former providing a simultaneous translation into Chinese. The broadcast shifted back to the studio once the U.S. leader began thanking allies in domestic states.

State newspaper People’s Daily sent alerts via its app during the event, pushing the news of Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He sitting down to sign the deal out at around 2 a.m. local time.

Most of the provisions in the document, which pauses the tariff war between the two nations, concern actions that China must take to avoid further penalties and address U.S. concerns over its trading practices. Beijing has worked to present it domestically as an equal treaty.

Shortly after the signing, CCTV published a commentary on its app arguing that the deal has two salient features: balance and equality and being a mutual “win-win”.

Early Thursday morning, the People’s Daily made a similar argument in an article published via WeChat, a social-media platform. The agreement is generally in line with China’s direction of advancing reforms and expanding opening up, and in line with China’s intrinsic needs of high-quality economic growth, it said.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story:�Miao Han in Beijing at mhan22@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:�Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net