SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — China has upped the ante in its trade war with the United States by raising tariffs on goods from the U-S to 125%, starting Saturday. It’s in response to President Trump’s 145% tariffs on China.
But there was a time when trade relations were much more cordial, if not cautious, between the two nations. South Dakota was on the front lines of building stronger economic and cultural ties to the communist country.
South Dakota’s Bill Janklow and Minnesota’s Rudy Perpich were among the U.S. governors who visited China in 1983. At one point, Janklow blew up a balloon that read ‘China and America are Friends’ and gave it to a little girl.
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“I think the biggest thing is people get to know each other. We get to know them, they get to know us,” Janklow said in 1983.
Much of South Dakota’s outreach to China involved getting the Chinese to purchase South Dakota ag products. A group from China checked out farm equipment during a tour of Sioux Falls in 1986.
“And here we have a t-rake, for raking hay,” was a comment shared within the group.
In 1987, a Chinese trade delegation visited the South Dakota capitol to sign an agreement to purchase wheat grown in South Dakota.
“It is our overall policy to buy as much as possible U.S. wheat,” a delegate from China said in 1987.
In that same year, a group from China visited the Rosebud Reservation to sample Native American culture.
“Everywhere, we’ve been met by very friendly American people,” a visitor from China said in 1987.
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In 1985, panda diplomacy came to Sioux Falls when China donated a mounted giant panda to the Delbridge Museum.
“These animals don’t leave China very much because of the extremely endangered status of the animal.,” an official said of the donation.
A site-seeing visit to Falls Park was accompanied by a hope for global goodwill in the future.
“We are much grateful to Sioux Falls people,” an official from China said in 1985.
But there’s been growing distrust between the countries in more recent years. Officials here have raised concerns about China stealing U.S. intellectual property and purchasing farmland. The South Dakota legislature passed a law in 2024 prohibiting China and a group of other countries from buying ag land in the state.
