Iowa, Across the Pacific

Are China and the United States partners, or adversaries? Can people-to-people exchanges reduce misunderstanding and the risk of miscalculation in one of the world's most consequential bilateral relationships?

In this documentary, Xinhua's Miao Xiaojuan meets several of President Xi Jinping's longtime Iowan friends, retraces the 1985 visit that shaped his first impressions of America, and follows young Iowans now crossing the Pacific in the other direction to see China for themselves.

Their stories reveal a more personal, everyday side of a world leader, and a relationship still being written by a new generation.

A Miao Xiaojuan Studio Film

A Xinhua News Agency Production