Hongqi N701 Travels With Xi Jinping From Hong Kong to the Trump Summit

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington this week for talks with President Donald Trump in the same custom state limousine that has followed him on foreign trips since 2022. Hongqi N701 is an internal project code more than a dealer name, and FAW Group’s Hongqi division built it for China’s top leadership rather than any public buyer. Hongqi means red flag, a name the brand has carried since 1958, when First Automobile Works first assembled luxury cars for senior officials.

Public sightings of the mysterious sedan began in July 2022, when Xi visited Hong Kong for the 25th handover anniversary. Since then, the long sedan has appeared in Russia, Egypt, and San Francisco last year, New Delhi for the BRICS summit a few weeks ago, and most recently in Washington. These trucks, you know, the ones who drive the leader about, frequently arrive ahead of the big cheese, often with black covers draped around a flatbed so all you see is fabric instead of the spaces between the panels. Surprisingly, manufacturing is carefully controlled; they reportedly only make approximately 50 of them per decade, or five per year, on a budget of around 572 million yuan ($85.2 million).

It’s 5.5 meters long, or around 18 feet, and has a large towering vertical chrome grille that reminds me of the Hongqi H9 sedan. There is also a red flag insignia slapped on the hood. Smaller flag poles sit on the front tire arches, and the side windows extend far back from the B-pillars, giving the second row passengers more freedom to move around, making it feel more like a genuine cabin back there. The back appearance is rather basic, with only some rectangular lights, some chrome on the tailgate, and two large exhaust pipes. Unfortunately, the actual weight, engine, and any armor plating specifications remain top secret. According to insider reports, it weighs more than 3 tons and features a large V8 or 6.0-liter V12 engine with 400 horsepower, as well as 21-inch run-flat wheels and some rather strong bullet-proof glass. It also appears to feature a separate air filtration system and a sealed cabin, as well as an encrypted link back to Beijing, but none of this has been confirmed by FAW.

Joe Biden caught a glimpse of it three years ago in San Francisco. He described it as a real beauty, and Xi was quick to point out that it was manufactured in China, before opening the rear door to allow Biden to look inside. Biden compared it to the American Cadillac, and now Washington can see the similarity up close. The Cadillac One, or the Beast, is built on a heavy truck chassis and is expected to weigh between 7 and 9 tons. The Hongqi N701 has the proportions of a long luxury sedan, but both automobiles are meant to protect a head of state from small arms fire, bomb fragments, and chemical threats while also serving as a mobile office.

Mao Zedong began hammering on about a Chinese state car in the 1950s. The early CA72 and CA770 Hongqis made the rounds of parades and whatnot, but were later supplanted by imported limousines. However, Xi had different plans when he began flying Hongqi L5s to New Zealand in 2014, later upgrading to the N501 and now the N701. Each time one of these sedans travels abroad, it gets to see the open road, but the whole specification sheet remains locked away with the individuals who created it.