Xi notes global impact of US ties in letter to Iowa friend

President Xi Jinping said that China is willing to work with the United States to promote the steady, sound and sustained development of China-US relations, and to seek more benefits for the two peoples and provide more public goods for the international community.

Xi made the comment in a reply letter on Jan 4 to one of his longtime friends in the US state of Iowa, Sarah Lande. She is former executive director of Iowa Sister States, a nonprofit organization that builds global cultural, economic and educational partnerships.

In 1985, Lande received Xi, who was then secretary of the Communist Party of China Zhengding county committee in Hebei province, when he visited the small Iowa city of Muscatine.