Xi Jinping’s letter to Iowa friends highlights strained US-China ties amid shifting agricultural ties

In FocusWhat Xi Jinping’s letter to old friends in Iowa means in a struggling, altered America

The personal thread may be intact, but the US agricultural partnership that once gave it weight is not

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Published: 6:00am, 25 Sep 2026Updated: 6:01am, 25 Sep 2026

When the presidents of the United States and China meet in Washington, the world will be watching to see whether their two countries can make good on their agreement to work towards “constructive strategic stability”. In the sixth part of a series, Khushboo Razdan looks at how a presidential appeal to America’s heartland is playing out.

Of the countless preparations being made for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s highly anticipated American trip, arguably the first came in the form of a personal letter.

On February 16, seven months before his White House visit, Xi wrote to friends in the midwestern US state of Iowa, sending a Chinese New Year card across the Pacific.

In it, the Chinese leader repeated a line Beijing uses when official relations are strained, saying the hope of the relationship “lies in the people”, its foundation “is grass-roots connections” and its future “depends on the youth”.

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