President's trips to Iowa remembered fondly by World Food Prize chief

World Food Prize Foundation president Kenneth M. Quinn has fond memories of President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa, when the Chinese leader talked about his interest in author Mark Twain and the Mississippi River.

Twenty-seven years earlier, Xi, then Party secretary of Zhengding county in Hebei province, had led a delegation to Muscatine, Iowa, and stayed with a local family for two days.

The small Midwestern city, near the Mississippi River, was thrust into the spotlight when Xi, impressed with the hospitality of its residents, returned to meet old friends during his 2012 visit to the United States as China's vice-president.

Quinn recalled that Xi talked about Twain and "seeing the sun over the Mississippi River" during a toast at a reception hosted by Iowa governor Terry Branstad at the state Capitol in Des Moines. Quinn was a guest at the reception.

The next day, US agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack, and China's minister of agriculture, Han Changfu, signed a historic pact that would guide the two countries' agricultural relationship for the next five years.

Quinn, speaking at a Vision China event in New York on Tuesday, said a deal for China to purchase $3.5 billion worth of soybeans was also signed, "reflecting the tenor of the time".

The former US ambassador to Cambodia and deputy assistant secretary of state has seen firsthand China's transformation in the past four decades.

He first visited China in 1979, accompanying Iowa governor Robert Ray on one of the first exchange visits following the normalization of relations.

With Ray, Quinn had the opportunity to meet with China's senior leader Deng Xiaoping. Since then, he has visited China frequently.

"Arguably, the past decades may come to represent the most dramatic period of economic growth ever to occur in China's history," he said.

"I tell people all the time that China is the most transformed country on Earth, that no other country has done more in the past 40 to 50 years."

Quinn, 76, said the success of the Chinese model cannot be ignored by the Western world and is pertinent to every nation.

The World Food Prize, often referred to as the Nobel Prize in food and agriculture, was created by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug in 1986 to recognize those who improve the quality and availability of food supplies.

Bestowed annually, it has twice been awarded to Chinese luminaries. The first was former minister of agriculture He Kang in 1993, and the second was Yuan Longping, dubbed the "father of hybrid rice", in 2004.

While He was recognized as a representative of China's efforts to boost agricultural production exponentially, Yuan was honored for developing a plant that yields more grain than anyone thought possible.

"He (Yuan) is an incredible example of Chinese scientific achievement," said Quinn, who has led the foundation since 1999 and is retiring at the end of the year.

"And he's spreading his knowledge and his capacity through his National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center."

xiaohong@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily Global 09/19/2019 page8)