China yesterday said Iowa Governor Terry Branstad was an “old friend,” following a report that he had accepted US president-elect Donald Trump’s offer to become the next US ambassador to China.
Trump offered the post to Branstad, a long-time friend of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), according to three people close to the matter.
Branstad, a US Republican, has accepted the offer, said the three people, who asked for anonymity.
“We welcome him to play a greater role in advancing the development of China-US relations,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang (陸慷) told a daily news briefing when asked about the report that Branstad would become ambassador.
Lu did not confirm the report and said China would work with whomever became ambassador.
Branstad arrived at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday afternoon with his wife, Chris, and his chief of staff, Michael Bousselot.
A contingent of Trump’s top advisers gathered for the meeting with Branstad, including Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus; chief strategist Steve Bannon; Donald Trump Jr; and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to two people familiar with the matter.
An hour after Branstad went up to Trump’s office, he re-emerged in the lobby, where he told reporters he would not comment on whether he was offered a post.
The longest-serving governor in US history, Branstad, 70, started a second run as governor in 2011. He previously held the job from 1983 to 1999.
Branstad and Xi met when Xi made his first trip to Iowa in 1985 during a sister-state exchange. At the time, Xi was a young agricultural official from Hebei Province, working as director of the Shijiazhuang Prefecture feed association.
The two men have reconnected several times since then. Despite their cultural differences, the pair forged strong bonds and have used their mutual love of agriculture to bridge the gap between their respective countries on human rights, economic issues and other tensions.
Branstad in 2012 feted Xi, then China’s vice president, with an elaborate dinner at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines, and days after Trump’s election embarked on a previously planned, week-long trade mission to China and Japan, his fourth trip to China in the past seven years.
China is the state’s second-largest export market, behind Canada. Figures from the US-China Business Council show Iowa exported US$2.3 billion in goods and US$273 million in services to China last year.
Among the main challenges facing the new ambassador will be Trump’s potential trade policy, including a vow to name China as a currency manipulator; state-sponsored computer hacking; and tensions surrounding China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
If Branstad is confirmed, it would trigger a domino effect in the state that would include Iowa getting its first female governor with the ascension of Iowa Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds, 59, Branstad’s desired political heir.
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