11/21/23 Working with a Dictator for Life

Chinese premier Xi Jinping has not governed, ruled or whatever the Communist party calls it in China, how Americans that came to know him before he became president of China expected that he would. He was one of the elite princelings that was groomed to become the leader of his country. In his younger days, he spent some time here, in Iowa actually, showing interest in US Agriculture. He stayed with farm families and cultivated a relationship with former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad who later was appointed as Ambassador to China specifically because of his relationship with Xi. I do not know if Trump really needed or desired anyone to be US ambassador to China, as he would call all the shots and rarely took anyone else’s experience or input as important. He reduced the traditional roles of Ambassadors and Cabinet members to being mere lackeys which is why so many of his former officials do not hold him in good esteem today. Americans who thought that they knew Xi Jinping have had difficulty reconciling the guy that they met when he lived here to the characterization he has earned since.   Insiders say that President Xi is very much…