Sarah Lande, from Iowa, has recently launched a book called "Old Friends: The Xi Jinping - Iowa Story" to tell this story of unlikely partners who came to collaborate from half a world away, across 30 years. Lande first welcomed Xi Jinping when the president of China visited Iowa in 1985, leading a delegation from Hebei, the state's sister province in China. Xi, Lande and many other "old friends" from his first trip to Iowa were reunited when Xi paid a visit to the United States in 2012 as the vice-president of China.