Iowa's longest serving governor is back home after three years overseas.
The newly retired Terry Branstad returned to Iowa earlier this month and has been touring the state to support Republican candidates for the 2020 general election.
"It's great. We are really excited to be back home," said Branstad. "This is the longest I've ever been out of Iowa."
In 2017, Branstad cut short his sixth term as Iowa's Governor after being asked to serve as the United States Ambassador to China. Branstad accepted the offer and has spent the last three years and four months representing the U.S. in Beijing.
During that time, Branstad spent much of his day-to-day activity traveling throughout the country, meeting with American companies operating in China and getting to know the locals of various regions.
"My goal was to hit every province in China and really get to know the country," said Branstad. "I didn't get to all of them, but that was a great way to get to know them."
Branstad has long been linked with China through his acquaintance with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two men have known each other for 35 years, meeting when Branstad was in his first term as Governor and Xi visited Iowa as part of an agricultural delegation.
Upon arriving in China, Branstad and Xi's families came together for a dinner to welcome the new ambassador to the country.
However, representing one global super power to another global super power is no small task and the relationship between the United States and Chinese governments is far more complicated than the relationship between two old acquaintances.
"It's a challenge," said Branstad. "We're the two biggest economies in the world and our systems are very different."
Unlike the United States, where the government was formed independent of political parties, the People's Republic of China's government was created by the Communist Party of China, the country's singular ruling political party. Without political opposition to check their power, the CCP is the dominating force on the lives of Chinese citizens.
"The one-party system has total control over people's lives and they don't have the freedoms that we have in this country," said Branstad. "There's a tremendous amount of surveillance. Anything and everything is under surveillance by the government, and that presents some real problems."
While Branstad has known Xi for decades and says he was treated very well during his time in China, it is not lost on him that Xi is a totalitarian dictator whose human rights abuses have escalated in recent years.
"Unfortunately, he is the leader of a one-party totalitarian state. Some of the things they do, we strongly disagree with," said Branstad. "They want to be respected, but if they want to be respected in the world they have to live by the rules that everybody else does."
For example, China's annexation and subsequent rule over Tibet has long been a source of international tensions between China and western democracies. Branstad himself visited Tibet in 2019 to see with his own eyes how the government has impacted the distinct culture of that region.
"I'm very concerned about the way the Tibetan people are being treated," said Branstad. "To a great degree, China is really trying to eliminate their language and culture. I think it's a wonderful part of the world. The Tibetan people are a very good people and I think they need to be respected for their human rights and religion."
What the Chinese government has done with Tibet can be seen in other areas of the country as well. The mistreatment of the minority Uighur population has gained international attention as the government has placed more than a million Uighurs in "re-education camps." At the same time, increased mainland influence over Hong Kong has led to mass protests as the more democracy attuned people of Hong Kong resist the Chinese government's authoritarian control.
These Chinese domestic issues have become sources of tension between China and the United States, leaving Branstad with the role of communicating the U.S. government's stance on the matter.
"It's my responsibility, representing the United States, to express our strong objections to those things that they've done to violate the human rights of people," said Branstad. "We have very frank discussions about those matters. We let them know how our government feels."
It's not just domestic issues that raise tensions between the two economic superpowers though.
For years the trade relationship between the United States and China has been considered somewhat one-sided, with the Chinese government strictly controlling access to the Chinese market and denying Americans the same access to universities that Chinese nationals receive in the states. In addition, the country is regularly accused of spying on American universities and research facilities while engaging in widespread intellectual property theft.
Many avenues have been taken to address these complaints over the years. In 2018, less than a year into Branstad's time as ambassador, President Donald Trump initiated his preferred strategy of using tariffs as a weapon against the Chinese economy.
The trade war between the two countries continued for the better part of two years as each side imposed retaliatory tariffs against each other. This particularly affected Iowa's agriculture industry as the sale of pork and soybeans to China was dramatically reduced, causing an economic chain reaction throughout the state. Something that Branstad hopes Iowans ultimately see as a necessary sacrifice for the greater good.
"I think Iowans understood that the way we've been treated by China for decades was not fair and we needed to get something fair and reciprocal," said Branstad.
Branstad sees his role in negotiating the "Phase One" trade deal, which, among other things, stipulates that China will purchase $80 billion in food over the next two years, as one of his most critical accomplishments during his time as ambassador.
"It took a while, it took us a couple years, but now we're seeing the benefits of it," said Branstad. "They’ve purchased a record amount of corn, pork, soybeans, and beef here in the last month. That's made a real difference for American farmers."
However, the Phase One trade deal wasn't the most impactful thing to come from China to the U.S. in January of 2020.
As ambassador, Branstad was in Beijing as a novel coronavirus began to spread in Wuhan, fated to soon rampage across the globe as the COVID-19 Pandemic.
"Unfortunately, because of the Chinese system, they didn't report the facts of what was really happening on the ground early on," said Branstad. "They had this big party on the Chinese New Year and a lot of people that went to that went all over the world."
Branstad attributes the virus's global spread to the inherent nature of China's political system, which was slow to react during the first days of the virus due to its reflexive tendency towards prioritizing a positive appearance over objective reality.
"I think it was really the fault of their system because nobody at the local level wanted to report the bad news up to Beijing," said Branstad. "The way their system works, people at the local level get punished if something bad happens. Unfortunately, that's the way their system works and because of that, that really made this virus situation a total disaster and led to the fact that, instead of containing the virus in China, it ended up becoming a worldwide pandemic."
Once the seriousness of the pandemic was understood, Branstad worked to evacuate the American consulate in Wuhan and bring in charter planes to get other Americans out of the country.
But where the Chinese government was slow to react to the virus, they've since taken dramatic steps to control its spread. Security protocols have become so tight that Ambassador Branstad hasn't personally met with President Xi since the pandemic began.
"Ever since the virus hit, they've just been very restrictive on who he meets with," said Branstad. "He hasn't accepted credentials from diplomats from other countries."
"If you want to go to China today, you have to be tested before you go, tested when you arrive, quarantined in a hotel for two weeks," said Branstad. "That's really curtailed travel and prevented a lot of personal contact."
Branstad announced earlier this year that he would be stepping down as ambassador and, as of his return to Iowa in early October, he is now done with the role.
The 73-year-old political figure is officially retired, but doesn't expect to stay idle for very long.
"I've already been asked by John Pappajohn to serve on the board of a company and I intend to do some public speaking and maybe do some consulting type work," said Branstad.
Branstad's tenure as ambassador marks the end of a long career in government, starting as a representative in the Iowa legislature and culminating to representing the United States to a global superpower during one of the most tumultuous times in modern history.
"It was challenging and difficult, but also a very rewarding experience," said Branstad. "I was very honored to be chosen by President Trump to represent the United States in China."
Submitted Photo
Terry Branstad has returned to Iowa after serving more than three years as the United States Ambassador to China.
