Beijing invited White House spokeswoman Katie Zachariah on Friday (October 16, 2026) to visit China again after she criticized the toilets there during her previous stay in the country, in a controversy that adds to the questions raised about the professional qualifications of Donald Trump's new spokeswoman.
“We invite her to visit China more frequently, when she has the opportunity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said with a smile on her face during the regular media briefing.
Zachariah, who lived in China at the beginning of the second decade of the new millennium, said Thursday in a press interview that China lacks "actual toilets."
She pointed out that the prevailing impression in 2016 was that China was on its way to overtaking the United States, adding that she was skeptical about that, “because the Chinese do not even have actual toilets.”
Doubts about its course
Zachariah has sparked controversy since her recent appointment to a position that is at the heart of media coverage of the US administration. The 41-year-old woman presents herself as a lawyer, especially on social media and on Fox News, where she worked as a consultant. Trump also presented her in this capacity when announcing her appointment.
However, American media questioned her qualifications to practice law, as they did not find evidence of her joining the Bar Association after obtaining a law degree from Pepperdine University in California.
After days of controversy, the spokeswoman admitted that she had failed the bar exam, which must be passed in order to practice the profession in the United States, during an interview on Fox News on Thursday evening.
When presenter Sean Hannity asked her, “You studied at Pepperdine Law School and you did not pass the bar exam, right?” she responded by saying, “That’s right,” before repeating the same answer when the anchor repeated his question. Hannity then asked her twice if she had taken the test “a second time,” and she ultimately said, “No, I had not.”
Zachariah had said in a previous interview on Thursday with the conservative media outlet Real America's Voice that she had registered to take the union exam, but that preparations for moving to live in China with her partner later "distracted and overwhelmed me."
She stated, "We said: Let's take our time. I will take the exam and see the results. The results are not really important because I knew that I did not need the union in China. We left shortly after that."
Zachariah moved with her partner to live in China, where she worked as a legal expert in a well-known Chinese law firm. She indicated that she did not take the union exam again after her return to the United States because she had “four children within six years.”
"misunderstanding"
In her interview with Real America's Voice, Zachariah denounced "media misinformation" and "misunderstanding," stressing that "many people in the sector" told her that she could introduce herself as a lawyer, given her law degree and experience in international business laws that she acquired in China.
On Wednesday, an American oversight group submitted a complaint to the California Bar Association, demanding an investigation into whether Zaccaria violated the law by presenting herself as a lawyer even though she did not have a license to practice the profession.
The Campaign for Accountability organization said in a statement that “identifying oneself as a lawyer without a license to practice in California is not just arrogance, it is a crime.”
Zachariah's first appearance as White House spokeswoman was stumbled on Tuesday, when she read at length from prepared remarks during a briefing that lasted only 14 minutes.
She was satisfied with receiving questions from three news organizations, all of which were considered supportive of the American administration, and she stumbled in providing some answers, as on one occasion she referred to her husband as the president.
It is noteworthy that Zachariah succeeded Caroline Leavitt, who left her position in August to take care of her two children.
