Talks seen as key amid tariffs

Ex-diplomat urges China-US dialogue as uncertainty weighs on Iowa farmers

Golden sunlight shimmers on the Mississippi River as visitors glide past Iowa's peaceful shores — along the same waters that carry the state's crops to markets around the world.

Travel and trade between China and Iowa have flourished for decades.

"When President Xi gave his toast, and he talked about being in Muscatine, he quoted Mark Twain talking about the sun over the Mississippi River," Kenneth Quinn, former president of the World Food Prize Foundation and a former 32-year career US Foreign Service officer, told China Daily.