Trump's pick for US envoy to China an 'old friend': Beijing

Iowa Governor Branstad has had a working relationship with Xi Jinping since 1985

Amidst soaring tension over Donald Trump's protocol-shattering talk to Taiwanese president, China on Wednesday welcomed the US president-elect's decision to appoint Terry Branstad as the next ambassador to Beijing and called him an "old friend" of President Xi Jinping.

Iowa Governor Branstad has had a working relationship with Xi since 1985 when the Chinese leader first visited Iowa as an agriculture official under a sister-state exchange programme.

In 2011, then vice-president Xi met Branstad in Beijing and the two reunited next year in Iowa during Xi's visit to the US. They met again in April 2013 in Beijing soon after Xi became the president.
 

"Branstad is an old friend of China and we welcome him to play a bigger role in China-US exchanges," said Lu Kang, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"The role of US ambassador to China serves as an important bridge in communication between China and the US, and no matter who is picked, China would like to work together with him to push forward healthy and stable development of China-US relations," Lu told reporters when asked about reports that Trump has offered the ambassadorial position to Branstad.

The 70-year-old Iowa governor's possible appointment as the top US envoy to China is being seen as a move by Trump to keep warm the close ties with the highest level of the Chinese leadership at a time when tension between the world's two biggest economies have soared after the US president-elect dumped four decades of diplomatic protocol and spoke with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen over phone.

China considers Taiwan an inalienable part of the mainland.