Leave it to the New York Times to rain on someone's parade. On Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping's visit to Iowa, Kirk Johnson wrote, "It was also clearly a propaganda event at a time of heightened tensions between the United [States] and China over a raft of issues."
Many protestors seemed to agree with Mr. Johnson's view, as they rallied in both Muscatine and Des Moines to protest China's treatment of Tibet, Taiwan, and the US trade deficit with China.
As Iowa Representative Steve King pointed out on the Simon Conway show on WHO Radio today, "They are communist, but we do business with a lot of people that don't agree with us philosophically." He also mentioned how much Vermeer and John Deere equipment China buys from us.
The US does have a trade deficit with China, but each month China buys more and more US goods. Most of those goods are agriculture related including soy beans, corn, and farm equipment--all of which are produced in Iowa.
A political propaganda trip by a foreign official would have featured a trip to Washington, DC to meet the president at the White House, and not much else. But Vice President Xi remembers his trip to Iowa in 1985 and wanted the chance to reunite with some of the people he met on that trip, including Governor Terry Branstad. Governor Branstad mentioned Iowa's trade with China in his toast at the Iowa State Capitol building:
"We are proud of our mutually beneficial trading partnerships with China, and Iowa farmers are proud to harvest safe and reliable agricultural products for use by the people of China. We hope to build upon these partnerships in related areas where Iowa leads the world, such as biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, food processing, and financial services."
Mr. Xi went on to say that he is "very impressed with the people of Iowa," and that since Iowa's exports to China have grown thirteen times in recent years, "Iowa stands as the forefront of sub-national cooperation between China and the US."
Accompanying Mr. Xi on his trip to the US is the Chinese agriculture minister, Han Changfu.
Tomorrow Mr. Xi will attend the US-China Agricultural Symposium in Des Moines and he will visit the Kimberly Farm in Maxwell, Iowa, before departing for California.
Xi Jinping's trip to Iowa is about humanity and foreign trade, while the New York Times is apparently about propaganda.
See the video "Iowa welcomes Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping with State Dinner" on Iowa Public Television's website.
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