Iowa town welcomes back China's next president
DES MOINES, Iowa -- The last time China's soon-to-be leader visited Iowa, he slept in a bedroom with green shag carpeting and Star Trek character cutouts on the walls. He ate eggs with a spoon because his host forgot the chopsticks.
But apparently Xi Jinping (shee jeen ping) remembered the 1985 stay fondly because he insisted on returning this week to Muscatine, a small farming community he toured to learn about crop and livestock practices.
Back then, he was a young Communist Party leader seeking ideas to help his agriculture-rich region of northern China. Now the nation's vice president, he made certain to add Muscatine to his jam-packed itinerary so he could reunite with the same Americans who showed him around the region's hog and cattle operations and its abundant corn and soybean fields.
"I'm flabbergasted that he would take time out of his busy schedule and come back to Muscatine," said Eleanor Dvorchak, whose family hosted him for two nights.
Although Dvorchak and her husband have since moved to Florida, they planned to return Wednesday for Xi's hourlong visit, and several other local farmers and residents he encountered will be there, too.
Some local officials were encouraged that agriculture -- and specifically Iowa agriculture -- was to play such a prominent part in a trip by the future leader of the world's most populous country.
"It sends a signal that the new leader is not a stranger to the U.S. and that he has experience and familiarity with America by reaching right into the heartland," said David Shorr, a foreign-policy specialist at the Stanley Foundation, a Muscatine-based nonprofit that focuses on promoting peace and international relations.
Xi is expected to ascend to the nation's highest office next year and could lead China over the next decade. His schedule called for him to meet with President Barack Obama on Tuesday in Washington before flying to Iowa. He'll also stop in California.
China purchased $20 billion in U.S. agriculture exports last year, making it the top buyer of farm goods.
In 1985, Xi stayed with the Dvorchaks, their 15-year-old daughter, and their dog in a four-bedroom, three-bath ranch home. The Star Trek-themed room had been left unchanged after the couple's sons went to college.
Eleanor Dvorchak, now 72, recalled a handsome 31-year-old man who was calm and intensely focused on learning as much as possible during his brief trip. He kept busy until late each day, so all he needed when he returned in the evening was peace and quiet, she said.
"My job was to provide him with breakfast and a quiet place for him to relax and think, to give him time to pull his thoughts together for the next day," she said. "It was just a pleasure to have him in our home. He was very undemanding."
