Iowa's friends in high places

'Historic' visit by President Xi to friendly agricultural state in the US Midwest helped put down roots that have since grown into a blossoming relationship

Entering the World Food Prize Foundation building, the first things that catch your eye are two Chinese characters pronounced as dadou, meaning soybean, carved on one of the four pillars at the hall. This is a courtesy to China as the home of soybeans. In fact, it's easy to find Chinese elements inside the building, located in downtown Des Moines, capital of the state of Iowa in the US Midwest.

Pictures of He Kang, former Chinese agriculture minister, and Yuan Longping, a Chinese agronomist known for his hybrid rice, are displayed on a wall among a group of those winning the World Food Prize.

Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, remembers every detail of Xi's visit to his organization in 2012.

"This is a historic event that connects China and the US, connects President Xi and Iowa. It was a significant moment for our organization, the World Food Prize," he says.

"We're proud of President Xi," Quinn says. "We think of him as somebody with an Iowa connection, a family member."

Pointing to a picture displayed in his house of him in a tractor with Xi, Rick Kimberley, of Kimberley Farms Inc, talks about Xi's visit to his farm in 2012.

"I asked President Xi if he wanted to get in the tractor, and he was very anxious to get in," he says.

"He was sitting here in the main seat, I was sitting on the smaller seat here right beside him. ... We had a very good talk about technology, about the monitors we have here in the cab.

"This is a famous picture that has been in all the papers here in the United States, and I believe it was in many newspapers in China," says Kimberley, the fifth generation of the Kimberley Farms family.

There is a US phrase "Iowa nice", referring to the open, responsive, bighearted, welcoming attitudes, hospitality, generosity and soft-spoken demeanor typical of Midwesterners.

In 1985, Xi, then party secretary of Zhengding county in China's northern province of Hebei, led a five-person delegation to Muscatine in the state of Iowa.

The "Iowa nice" attitude impressed him so deeply that when he revisited Muscatine and met his old friends at the home of Sarah Lande in 2012, he said: "You were the first people I met in America. Tome, you are America."

Iowa Soybean Association Chief Executive Officer Kirk Leeds shares similar memories.

"Being in the Midwest, and as an agriculture state, we have 'Iowa nice'," Kirk says. "We would say Xi experienced 'Iowa nice' back in 1985 and experienced it again when he came back. We are proud of the relationship, and we have some responsibility for the US-China relationship because of the special relationship with President Xi."

With this "Iowa nice" feeling on both sides, exchanges between China and Iowa have increased dramatically in recent years.

Iowa and Hebei province have become sister state/provinces; Muscatine has a sister city relationship with Zhengding, and many Chinese delegations have come to Iowa to visit Kimberley Farms. Additionally, agricultural education exchanges between Iowa and China have been enhanced, and the number of Chinese tourists visiting Iowa has increased.

Kimberley Farms has so far built two demonstration farms in China - one in Hebei province and the other in Northeast China's Jilin province - and has established a cooperative relationship with many farms in China.

Trade between China, Iowa and the US Midwest has skyrocketed. Fifty-six percent of US soybean exports go to China, and Iowa is the second largest soybean producer in the US. Iowa also supplies feed and pork to China.

China's trade with nine states in the Midwest reached $92.6 billion in 2015. Chinese enterprises have invested a total of $13 billion in the Midwest, creating nearly 30,000 jobs, according to statistics provided by the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago.

"So we will just build on those relationships and continue with that," says Kirk.

"The visit of President Xi to our home meant a great deal to us, and we have a great love and understanding for the people of China now," Kimberley says.

"It's brought us to understand China and the people of China much better. We might be in different countries, but we're all alike. We're all human beings."