US policymakers say they know little about Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平), the country’s likely next leader, but they are certain on one point — he is fond of Iowa.
When Xi visits the US in the middle of next month he will return to the Midwestern state to reunite with Iowans he met on his first visit to the US in 1985 when he was a low-ranking local official on an exchange.
“He was very pleased with the very friendly, warm reception he received in Iowa, and he really feels a kinship and friendship with the people of Iowa,” Iowa Governor Terry Branstad said.
Photo: Reuters Warning: Excessive consumption of alcohol can damage your health
Branstad visited Beijing last year to invite Xi. He said the vice president received him at the Great Hall of the People for an unusually long 50 minutes and revealed that he had saved the itinerary from his 1985 trip.
“The first thing he said was: ‘I was in your office in Des Moines on April 26, 1985,’” said Branstad, a Republican who has been elected governor five times. “Obviously Iowans made a very good impression on him. I think coming to Iowa symbolizes that he wants to focus on cooperation.”
Xi, who will receive a White House welcome from US President Barack Obama on Feb. 14, will travel the following day in Iowa starting in Muscatine, the Mississippi River town he visited as a county official from Hebei Province.
Branstad said Xi would meet Iowans from the 1985 trip and then head to Des Moines, the state capital, for a formal dinner. Xi may also visit a farm before heading on Feb. 16 to California, his final stop, the governor said.
Iowa’s interest in China is largely commercial. Its exports to China have soared in recent years as the country’s rising middle class buys more pork, corn, soybeans and other agricultural products from the US Midwest.
However, besides bringing business, some Americans hope that such personal contacts can help build trust between the US and China, and lower mutual suspicions.
Vlad Sambaiew, president of the Stanley Foundation, a Muscatine-based think tank that supports international dialogue, said that many future foreign leaders had formative exposure to the US when visiting small communities such as his own.
“I’m always impressed about how we hear many years later about how someone really enjoyed their visit,” said Sambaiew, a former US diplomat. “I think it provides a perspective that’s very different than if you’re only meeting with officials in Washington, New York or another major metropolitan center. People do tend to be much more informal and Iowa has this reputation of being a very friendly state.”
It is not the first time Iowa has taken a role in international diplomacy. At the height of the Cold War in 1959, then-Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev toured a farm in Coon Rapids, a now-famous visit that helped humanize the superpowers.
Sambaiew said that there was nowhere near as much hostility at the present time between the US and China, with about 3,000 Chinese students in Iowa alone.
The two countries have myriad disputes that are expected to come up during Xi’s visit. The US has repeatedly voiced concern about Beijing’s rising military spending, while many Chinese policymakers are convinced that Washington is trying to contain it.
The US is also likely to raise concerns about trade and human rights, amid accounts that China has recently shot dead protesters and imposed a virtual lockdown on Tibetan-inhabited areas.
In one bid to improve Beijing’s image in the US, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), on a state visit a year ago, visited the Midwestern metropolis Chicago, where he showcased a Chinese-run factory creating jobs.
US officials have said that they are unsure how, if at all, Xi would differ from Hu in handling disputes with the US.
Xi is widely tipped to assume the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the presidency from Hu in a process due to begin this year.
Besides Xi’s fondness for Iowa, it is known that his daughter studies at Harvard University.
A US diplomatic cable released by whistleblower site WikiLeaks also revealed that Xi enjoys Hollywood movies and counts Saving Private Ryan among his favorites.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS