2012-2-23
The “A Country Cannot Become a Decent Nation Unless Newsweek Has at Least 500,000 Subscribers” series.
Simon and Garfunkel—America
A Nostalgic Trip　…From the February 29 issue of Newsweek.
Is the Next Chinese Leader’s Smile Genuine?
February 15, 2012
Muscatine, Iowa
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who is expected to become China’s leader at this autumn’s Communist Party Congress, made his first official visit to the United States last week (see related article on page 19).
After the capital, Washington, his next destination was Muscatine, Iowa.
He had visited the town in 1985 on an agricultural technology inspection tour, when he was secretary of the Communist Party Committee of Zhengding County, Hebei Province.
No one at the time could have imagined that the young man from a remote corner of China would return to their town 27 years later as the country’s presumed next president.
Xi apparently greatly appreciated the unpretentious welcome he received in the agricultural state of Iowa, and when he was reunited with his host family and the family who had served him dinner, he spoke to them in a relaxed manner, saying, “To me, you are America itself.”
Xi, who was sent down to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution and shared the hardships and joys of life with farmers, may have a special attachment to agriculture.
The decision to purchase $4.3 billion worth of American soybeans was probably not intended solely to ease trade friction.
However, not everyone who greeted him was an old friend.
President Obama scarcely made eye contact with Xi during their meeting and pressed him on human rights, while Tibetans living in the United States condemned the Communist regime’s oppression of ethnic minorities everywhere he went.
Was the smile of this “man of mystery,” who rarely reveals his true face, genuine?
The answer will gradually become clear.