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Xi Jinping chats with his American friends during his 2012 trip to Iowa as China's vice-president. He is currently on a state visit to the U.S. as China's president. Liu Jiansheng / Xinhua

Terry Branstad excited about US visit by China's president who shares a special bond with people of Hawkeye State

For Terry Branstad, the Republican governor of Iowa, Xi Jinping's state visit to the U.S. is a renewal of the friendship between the Chinese President and the people of Iowa.

Branstad first met the president in 1985 when Xi, then a county official in northern Hebei province, led a five-member agricultural delegation to sister state Iowa.

The governor was serving his first term, and he received the group in his office in the Iowa State Capitol. It was also Branstad who signed the Iowa-Hebei sister agreement in 1983.

The delegation visited farms and factories and stayed with local host families in the small town of Muscatine, along the Mississippi River. They went on tours on the river and attended a birthday party and a picnic.

When Xi made a return trip to Iowa in 2012 as China's vice president at Branstad's invitation, he recalled the fond memories he had from Iowa and referred to the people there as old friends.

"We're very honored and very proud to have the president of China call us old friends," said Branstad, who this year became the longest-serving governor in U.S. history. "We're excited about his trip to America again."

China is a key trade partner for Iowa, a major agricultural producer of soybeans, corn and pork, and the governor sees the purchase of Smithfield Foods, the largest U.S. pork producer, by a Chinese company as a sign that more Iowa pork will be exported to China.

Branstad had hoped the president would return to Iowa this time, too, and did extend an invitation.

"We would love to have him in Iowa, but this year it's going to be Seattle," he said.

"I understand that," he said. "This is a big country, and there are 50 states, so I don't think we can get him to come to Iowa every time he comes to America."

But Branstad still sent the invitation. "I know he had very fine feelings of Iowa."

When Xi met his old friends in Iowa in February 2012, he told them that because they were the first Americans he met on his first trip to the US. "to me, you are America."

"He said that when he thinks of America he thinks of Iowa, of the nice people he met here in 1985, the friendliness, the hospitality, the genuineness of Iowa people," Branstad recalled. "So I think he feels very much at home in Iowa."

The governor described Xi as being unlike other Chinese officials, who are usually formal and scripted. Instead, he said, Xi spoke off-script during the reunion in 2012. "We're very proud to have that personal relationship with him," he added.

Branstad said he was looking forward to meeting with Xi in Seattle, where the Chinese president was scheduled to meet with a group of U.S. governors. He said he wanted to tell the Chinese leader that he knows China is going through some economic challenges, but that "we're proud to be friends, and we want to continue."

According to the governor, Iowa has withstood challenges, too, with the price of corn falling below the cost of production, coupled with an outbreak of avian flu.

"So I just want to renew our friendship, indicate our continued interest in building on the longstanding relationship, friendship and trust, and continue to improve the relations between our countries, and also to increase trade," he said.

Branstad has led several trade missions to China over the years. Although he could not make it to China this year, he said he hopes to visit in 2016.

Besides agricultural products, the governor also wants to promote his state in China as a major insurance center, with Principal Financial Group, headquartered in Des Moines, trying to make further in-roads in the Chinese market. Other Iowa companies such as John Deere and DuPont Pioneer are already doing "phenomenal business" in China, he said.

He also hopes to take genetically modified strains of corn to China, arguing that, based on experiences in the US, the varieties are safe and could help increase production. However, the Chinese remain cautious about GM products, while the central government has strict approval procedures.

Branstad did not comment specifically on comments by Republican candidates about China and Xi's trip, saying only: "The responsibility for foreign policy is with the federal government."

He added, "I'm the governor of the state, and I want to do everything I can to create jobs in Iowa, and to increase exports and to build friendships around the world. We have done that very effectively with China."

He said he understands there are differences that need to be worked out by the two governments, "but, nevertheless, I have an old friend whom I trust and respect, and I want to build on that longstanding relationship of friendship and trust."

There are going to be ups and downs in the China-US relationship, the governor said, but he urged people to "take the long view, and recognize the importance of building personal relationships, which can break down a lot of barriers of mistrust and misunderstanding that sometimes occur between our countries."

Branstad recalled his first trip to China in 1984, when bicycles were the primary mode of transportation. "We rode on the old steam locomotive from Beijing to Shijiazhuang. Now you have bullet trains and different kinds of cars," he said.

Skyscrapers have also largely replaced the six-story buildings that Branstad saw in the 1980s. "When I went back in 2011 and 2013, I saw dramatic changes," he added. "You can be very proud of all the things that have happened in China."