From tea to soybeans, trade ensures China and the US are inextricably linked

Chinese tea was once associated with the “cause of freedom” in the American Revolution and the creation of the new commercial republic in 1776. American colonial life – especially in the second half of the 18th century – was infused with Chinese teas, luxuries such as silk, porcelain, wallpaper, Chinese Chippendale furniture and other products. In fact, the new republic attempted to emulate Chinese affluence while developing a tea-drinking socio-economic culture to nurture the promising American civilisation.

Like most of the founding generation, Benjamin Franklin was a habitual tea drinker. He estimated that “a million of Americans drink tea twice a day” either in the morning at home, socially in the afternoon, or in the evening after dinner. In the last quarter of the 18th century, Americans consumed more than one billion cups of tea annually – close to two cups per person each day.

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Some 240 years later, a “Trump revolution” appears to have begun with soybeans. President Donald Trump’s “America first” campaign slogan resonated with the rural hinterland communities neglected by the Washington elite and New York financiers. This hinterland electorate has largely resided in the soybean-growing triangle region of upper Midwestern states from the Corn Belt of the Dakotas, Iowa and Nebraska, to Pennsylvania and down into the Mississippi Delta.

In a complete role reversal, China is now fascinated by all things American. Over the past three decades, China has emerged as the largest importer of American soybeans with more than 1 billion bushels last year. The US Department of Agriculture estimated that China imported only about 18 million bushels of soybeans in the mid-1990s. Since then, the Chinese appetite has rapidly increased, making soybeans the leading export industry in the US hinterland, followed by Boeing planes, recyclable materials and automobiles.

Trump praised Branstad’s success in developing close trade ties with China while serving as governor of Iowa and said “he represents America’s interests and further develops a mutually beneficial relationship with China’s leadership”.

On his part, Branstad said, “I’ve known President Xi Jinping for many years and consider him an old friend”. Xi visited Iowa and stayed with a farming family in 1985.