China-US relations through the footsteps of Xi Jinping

Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet with President Trump at Mar-a-lago, Florida in the United States from April 6 to 7.

This will be the first meeting between Xi and Trump since the US president assumed office in January. But Xi Jinping is certainly no stranger to the American people as he has been to the country seven times in the past.

April 1985, in Muscatine, Iowa

Xi Jinping (left) leads an agricultural delegation on a visit to Iowa in April 1985. [Photo: people.cn]

The then 32-year-old Xi led a five-person agricultural delegation to Muscatine, Iowa, living with a local family and exchanging their experience in agriculture and stock farming.

He was then the secretary of the Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) of Zhengding County, north China's Hebei province.

During the stay, he visited farms, attended a local birthday party and picnicked on a boat with his hosts on the Mississippi River.

Xi Jinping (center) at a picnic at the farm of Janet Rauch in April 1985 [Photo: people.cn] 

Twice in the early 1990s

During his service as the Party secretary of Fuzhou city, southeast China's Fujian province, Xi visited the US in 1992 and 1993.

He talked with overseas Chinese living there, listened to their suggestions on China's development and inspected the urban construction plans.

Xi Jinping (right), then Party secretary of Fuzhou city, talks with Connie Bacon, then Commissioner Port of Tacoma, Washington in Oct. 1993. [Photo: youth.cn]

May 2006, in Washington, New York and New Jersey

Xi made his fourth trip to the United States in 2006 as Party Secretary of China's eastern Zhejiang province to promote economic and trade cooperation and communication.

He led a delegation to attend a celebration marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of friendly province/state relations between Zhejiang and New Jersey.

During the trip he met the management of large US companies, including Henry Paulson, who was then CEO of Goldman Sachs.

Xi Jinping (right), then Party Secretary of Zhejiang province, shakes hands with the then New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine in Trenton, New Jersey, in May 2006. [Photo: people.cn]

Feb. 2012, in Washington, Iowa and California

Then Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (3rd right, front) joins dozens of ordinary Americans for tea at a local house owned by his old friend Sarah Lande (3rd, L) in Muscatine, Iowa in Feb. 2012. [Photo: Xinhua]

The then Vice President met a number of US officials, including President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Xi Jinping reiterated the importance of the steady development of bilateral relations and mutual benefit on many occasions during the visit.

His landmark trip was described as a "Valentine's Day date" with the US by many media.

During his fifth visit to the US, Xi made one personal request -- a stop in Muscatine, the small county he once visited 27 years ago, to meet his "old friends".

Then Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (center, front) is presented with souvenir jerseys with names of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and Los Angeles Galaxy soccer player David Beckham at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, in Feb. 2012. [Photo: Xinhua]

June 2013, in Sunnylands, California

The meeting took place only three months after Xi took office as Chinese president. It had been widely anticipated that Xi would have his first presidential-level talks with Obama at the G20 summit in Russia in September 2013. However, Xi made it happen earlier by dropping by during his trip to Latin America.

The two presidents strolled side by side under the desert sun, without jackets or ties, in the finely manicured gardens of the Annenberg estate.

They reached a consensus on building a new model of China-U.S. relations featuring no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect, cooperation and common prosperity.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) and U.S. President Barack Obama take a walk before heading into their second meeting, at the Annenberg Retreat, California, in June 2013. [Photo: Xinhua]

September 2015, in Seattle and Washington D.C.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) holds small-scale talks with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington D.C., in Sep. 2015. [Photo: Xinhua]

Only two years later, Xi Jinping paid a state visit to the US, which is seen as a milestone event in the history of China-US relations.

The trip pointed the way for the new model of major-country relations based on mutual respect and win-win cooperation.

During his visit, Xi interacted with Americans of all walks of life, systematically introducing to the US side China's view on peaceful development and the world order, promoted friendship and mutual trust, and explicitly interpreted the fact that cooperation will lead to a win-win situation while conflict will harm both.

Xi Jinping (center) visits the Boeing Paine Field Assembly plant in Seattle, in September 2015. [Photo: sina.com.cn]