LOS ANGELES — China’s soon-to-be-leader arrived in California on Thursday to wrap up his four-day U.S. trip by talking business with Gov. Jerry Brown, touring a shipping terminal at the giant Port of Los Angeles and maybe even catching a Lakers game.
Vice President Xi Jinping was focusing on forging relationships. Xi spent the morning in Iowa, where officials from the U.S. and China signed a five-year deal to guide discussions on food security, food safety and sustainable agriculture.
China became the top market for U.S. agricultural goods last year, purchasing $20 billion in U.S. agricultural exports, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Xi, who is expected to become president next year of the world’s most populous nation, climbed into the cab of a John Deere tractor at a farm near Des Moines and chatted with fifth-generation farmer Rick Kimberley. He asked detailed questions about farming techniques in Iowa, the nation’s largest producer of corn and soybeans.
“He said the tractor really felt comfortable,” Kimberley said after the visit.
Xi’s visit to Los Angeles is a reminder of his country’s huge footprint at the busiest port in the U.S. Nearly 60 percent of the imports moving through the Port of Los Angeles come from China, including $120 billion worth of computers, TVs, sneakers and other goods last year.
The Asian power sells four times as many goods to the U.S. as the U.S. sends in return to China. The U.S. shipped $13.5 billion in exports to China through the Los Angeles port last year.
