Donald Trump is the president-elect of the United States.
US President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly jabbed China on everything from trade to Taiwan. So who better to send to Beijing as America's new envoy than someone whose decades-long relationship with China's president may help smooth ruffled feathers?
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad -- who Trump has tapped to be his ambassador to Beijing, a top aide said Wednesday -- has known current Chinese President Xi Jinping since 1985.
That year, Xi visited the American heartland as a young Hebei provincial cadre leading an agricultural research delegation.
Branstad was governor at the time, and the two men have remained in touch as Xi rose to become China's leader-in-waiting and its eventual president.
Over six terms at the helm in Iowa, Branstad -- who, like Trump, is 70 years old -- has become the longest serving governor in US history, a towering figure in Republican politics known for his fiscal and social conservatism.
But he has also unapologetically helped steward billions of dollars in Iowa agriculture sales to China, whose voracious appetite for farm imports is only growing.
Branstad's Iowa inked a sister-state relationship with China's Hebei province in 1983, just before Xi's visit.
In 2011, Branstad visited Beijing and met with Xi at the Great Hall of the People, where he invited him to return to the Mississippi River town of Muscatine, where Xi had led a delegation in April 1985 to learn about hog farming and corn applications.
Xi made the trip back in 2012, as his country's vice president. He was again hosted by Branstad, and the two sides signed billions of dollars in farm deals.
"He was very pleased with the very friendly, warm reception he received in Iowa and he really feels a kinship and friendship with the people of Iowa," Branstad told AFP at the time, noting that Xi had revealed he had saved the itinerary from his 1985 trip.
"Obviously Iowans made a very good impression on him."
'Old Friend' To China'If confirmed by the Senate, Branstad -- who visited Beijing just last month on a trade mission to push Iowa's beef and pork exports -- will be Beijing's primary point of contact with the US government as a fledgling Trump administration finds its legs.
In comments before the nomination was made official, China called Branstad an "old friend."
The pick of Branstad, who was an early supporter of Trump's presidential bid, is likely to send a reconciliatory message to Beijing, particularly after Trump sparked disquiet in Washington's largest trading partner by taking a protocol-busting phone call with the leader of Taiwan.
The maverick real estate tycoon has lashed out at China, accusing Beijing of currency manipulation, unfairly taxing US exports and militarizing the South China Sea.
If Trump has telegraphed a more contentious relationship to come between Washington and its superpower rival, Branstad's "cornfield diplomacy" could pay dividends in the world's most important trade relationship.
It is difficult to imagine the United States not taking some sort of trade action against China in 2017, "on currency or subsidies or cyber-theft of intellectual property," said Derek Scissors, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and an expert on US-China relations.
Even if such action is limited, "Branstad would then need to smooth ruffled feathers, where his relationship with Xi should help," Scissors told AFP.
Branstad has been in Iowa politics most of his career. He was elected to the Iowa House in 1972 before being elected lieutenant governor in 1978. He was governor from 1983 to 1999, and was then served as Des Moines University president for six years until his return to the governor's mansion in 2011.
Trump had hinted that Branstad would be his envoy in Beijing.
In a speech in Sioux City, Iowa, two days before the November 8 election, he said Branstad "would be our prime candidate to take care of China."
"I think there's nobody that knows more about trade than him," Trump said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)