APEC meeting: Xi Jinping's unexpected link to small-town Iowa

 APEC meeting: Xi Jinping's unexpected link to small-town Iowa

It is still a mystery to Rick Kimberly how China's future leader came to stay at his farm outside of Des Moines.

An advance team had shown a special interest in Iowa's agricultural regions before to the 2012 trip, and Mr. Kimberly's family's farm, which raised maize and soybeans, suited the description.

"They also informed us that they did not want anyone to climb on the farm machinery," he remembers. They were perhaps concerned that someone may trip and fall."

However, authorities misjudged Vice President Xi Jinping, who was the most significant member of their team, for his pragmatic enthusiasm.

Mr. Kimberly claims to have seen President Xi examining a John Deere tractor. "I asked him if he wanted to get on it."

"He obviously did. He didn't even wait for the interpreter to finish translating; instead, he grasped what I was saying right away and headed straight for the tractor."

Fears over health and safety proved to be baseless, and Mr. Xi emerged from his trip on the agricultural equipment satisfied and unhurt.

It turned out to be yet another chapter in the strange tale of the Chinese president's connection with the mostly rural state of Michigan.

In 1985, Mr. Xi visited Iowa for the first time as a member of a Chinese agricultural delegation from the Hebei region.

He resided in Muscatine, a 24,000-person community bordered by farms and the Mississippi River.

The team "met with elderly people from the local community, addressed a birthday party, conducted six interviews through local media outlets and attended five welcomed banquets hosted by the American side," according to the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist celebration's official newspaper.

"I felt he was a very nice, focused, polite person," Eleanor Dvorchak told the BBC after having Mr. Xi stay at her house. "Glad to have him home."

While Mr. Shea was attending the University of Iowa for college, the Dvoruchks put him in their son's bedroom. The Chinese president was able to keep his thoughts on the Star Trek wallpaper in the room to himself, if he had any.

The new president's "old friends" in the Chinese media are some of the Iowans he met on his first visit. Additionally, Mr. Xi will undoubtedly get a warm greeting from many "old friends" despite the fact that the often tense ties between the US and China will be discussed in depth at this week's APEC conference and a meeting between him and President Joe Biden. asked to supper.

He had returned to Muscatine on his 2012 visit to the state, and the following year, a Chinese investor bought the Dworchaks' former house, which had been temporarily transformed into a museum.

Although Mr. Xi is not scheduled to visit Iowa this week, he is anticipated to have a meeting with Terry Branstad, the former governor of the state who was Donald Trump's ambassador to China.

After resigning as ambassador, Mr. Branstad told an Iowa newspaper that although he had a cordial personal connection with Mr. Xi, he had serious reservations about certain of the Chinese government's policies. Mr. Branstad did not reply to a request for comment.

"I think the mistreatment of Uyghurs including the actions they've taken toward people in Hong Kong are unjustified," he said to The Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

In the past, he attacked the nation for keeping the cause of the COVID-19 epidemic a secret, declaring, "I really think their system is a real problem."

The sixth generation of Mr. Kimberly's family to farm in Iowa since the 1860s, he is 72 years old, claims that the Chinese delegation in 2012 was more interested in the details than merely a picture opportunity. posed several queries. of contemporary farming.

Additionally, the journey changed his life on a personal level. Later on, he received an invitation to China, and in an attempt to further agricultural growth, he has since been there over 20 times.

He states, "We support better development practices and sustainable agriculture." "Our 4,000 acres of land are farmed by four individuals. People in China find it incredible that so few people can accomplish such feats of farming on such a large area of land.

And as a result, his property began to draw tourists. "Hundreds, if not thousands" of Chinese citizens, according to Mr. Kimberly, have made the pilgrimage to the location where their leader once rode a tractor.