Xi's old Iowa friends wish summit well

The two-day summit meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama has a personal connection for Muscatine, Iowa resident Sarah Lande.

June 7, the day the leaders meet, is Lande's 75th birthday, and she says the get-together of the leaders of the world's two largest economies is one of the best birthday presents she could ever receive.

And for good reason, Lande said. Back in 1985, Lande's family played host to a Chinese delegation studying Iowa's farming technology and Xi, the then Party official of Hebei Province in northern China, was among the members of the delegation.

Last February, that nearly three-decade-old friendship brought Xi - Vice President of China at the time - back to Muscatine, a Mississippi River town of about 23,000 people, for a reunion with his "old friends" during a week-long visit to the US.

"He wouldn't have needed to do that (to come to visit us)," Lande said.

"He laughed and remembered the good times," Lande said of her old friend at the February meeting. "He truly seemed like a warm, caring, listening person who could tell stories. He is a personal person you like."

Lande describes Xi as someone who values "people-to-people" relationships and is a "confident individual" who will lead US-China relations forward.

For Lande, the highlight of Xi's speech during his February visit was when he said, "To me, you are America," a remark that deeply touched many in the town.

"My community appreciates the opportunity to lead the way in setting the first impression with the new leader of China," said Muscatine mayor DeWayne M. Hopkins. "We hope that our President follows our lead."

Muscatine and Zhengding County in Hebei Province became sister cities in April.

White House officials said the meeting between Xi and Obama - which takes place at Sunnylands, a desert retreat in Rancho Mirage, California - will provide an opportunity for the two leaders to have a "substantive, candid, and productive conversation".

"It is my feeling that when two people sit down to discuss differences, and both have an opportunity to air their concerns about the other, that problems current and future begin to be solved," said Hopkins. "On-going communications are key to problem solving."

Lande hopes the two leaders will talk through differences and disagreements between the two nations and focus more on the "many things we could work on together positively".