Xi’ s two-day visit begins today
Xi’ s two-day visit begins today
According to The Wall Street Journal, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to Iowa this week is designed in large part to make a point to U.S. critics of Beijing’s economic policies: China is good for the American farm belt,
Xi was scheduled to arrive in Iowa today midway through a U.S. tour to burnish his credentials as a statesman ahead of his expected selection as China’s top leader this year. The stop in farm country will highlight his personal connection with a part of the United States he first visited 27 years ago.
But it is also intended to draw a contrast with the bashing Beijing usually gets in Washington for the big U.S. trade deficit with China, by highlighting how China’s growing dependence on America to feed its swelling middle-class population is a big reason that U.S. agriculture is experiencing an economic boom.
China was the biggest foreign buyer of U.S. agricultural goods in 2011, and much of what it bought were commodities that are big in Iowa, such as soybeans, pork and corn. Grain farmers in Iowa have enjoyed record returns in the past two years, and the state has the nation’s sixth-lowest unemployment rate, at 5.6 percent. That makes the Hawkeye State welcoming terrain.
U.S. farmers “know the Chinese market is growing, and they can make better money,” said Yang Guoqiang, the Chinese consul general in Chicago. “I think the whole Midwest has different feelings from what D.C. is talking about.”
The Chinese leader will spend most of his two days in Iowa at agriculture events. He plans to visit a farm about 20 miles outside Des Moines, attend a symposium on U.S.-China farm ties, and attend a gala dinner sponsored by Iowa’s trade associations for pork, corn and soybeans. He departs Thursday for Los Angeles.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to Iowa this week is designed in large part to make a point to U.S. critics of Beijing’s economic policies: China is good for the American farm belt,
Xi was scheduled to arrive in Iowa today midway through a U.S. tour to burnish his credentials as a statesman ahead of his expected selection as China’s top leader this year. The stop in farm country will highlight his personal connection with a part of the United States he first visited 27 years ago.
But it is also intended to draw a contrast with the bashing Beijing usually gets in Washington for the big U.S. trade deficit with China, by highlighting how China’s growing dependence on America to feed its swelling middle-class population is a big reason that U.S. agriculture is experiencing an economic boom.
China was the biggest foreign buyer of U.S. agricultural goods in 2011, and much of what it bought were commodities that are big in Iowa, such as soybeans, pork and corn. Grain farmers in Iowa have enjoyed record returns in the past two years, and the state has the nation’s sixth-lowest unemployment rate, at 5.6 percent. That makes the Hawkeye State welcoming terrain.
U.S. farmers “know the Chinese market is growing, and they can make better money,” said Yang Guoqiang, the Chinese consul general in Chicago. “I think the whole Midwest has different feelings from what D.C. is talking about.”
The Chinese leader will spend most of his two days in Iowa at agriculture events. He plans to visit a farm about 20 miles outside Des Moines, attend a symposium on U.S.-China farm ties, and attend a gala dinner sponsored by Iowa’s trade associations for pork, corn and soybeans. He departs Thursday for Los Angeles.
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