The U.S. and China have been in the throes of a high-stakes, international trade spat for weeks, but there’s also a more local angle to the negotiations: States have their own economic ties to China.In Iowa, for example, a quarter of the state’s soybean crop goes to the Chinese market, part of the larger $2 billion trading relationship.As a county level official in Northern China, Chinese President Xi Jinping forged ties with Iowa when he led a small delegation to visit the small town of Muscatine in 1985. At the time, China had just entered the global economy and was eager to learn advanced agricultural techniques from the West.In the decades since, China’s booming economy has fueled demand for soybeans and hogs in Iowa, now the second-largest exporter of agricultural products in the U.S.And Iowa’s connection to China goes beyond just the economics. In 2012, Xi came back to Iowa as China’s vice president to visit his old friends shortly before he became president. He was warmly greeted by the state’s former governor, Terry Branstad, who's now the U.S. ambassador in Beijing.VICE News traveled to Muscatine, Iowa, a town with a special tie to the country President Trump says is ripping us off.