China President Xi Jinping’s Oldest Friends in the US

In 1985, a then little-known official Xi Jinping, along with a delegation from China, visited the town of Muscatine, Iowa to study animal feed. They were hosted by resident Sarah Lande and team, staying in a simple home that is now known as the Sino-US Friendship House. It was Xi’s first time in America. 27 years later, Xi returned to Muscatine in 2012 to visit Sarah and his old friends, this time as Vice President of China. He had met President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and then Vice-President Joe Biden before making a social trip to Iowa. Sarah recalls Xi saying “You are the first people I met when I came to the United States of America. To me, you are America.” Xi also visited the Kimberley Farm in Des Moines. He took an interest in the farm’s modern agricultural practises, striking a deal with soybean farmer Rick Kimberley to build a 4,000 acre China US demonstration farm in Hebei province. However since the US-CHINA trade war broke out in 2018, no mention of this friendship farm