By Andrea Grubaugh, Muscatine Journal
MUSCATINE — A Muscatine woman will be honored next week by the University of Iowa for her hospitality and efforts in diplomacy between her city and the country of China.
Sarah Lande will receive the University of Iowa’s 2020 International Impact Award through a virtual Zoom ceremony at 5:30 p.m. Monday.
Lande has helped establish ties with China since 1985, when she hosted Xi Jinping in her home. Twenty-five years later when the former vice president returned to Muscatine, he again visited her home, and in 2013, she was named as an honorary Friendship Ambassador by the Chinese People’s Association of Friendship Foreign Countries.
“I feel this award should be in the name of the citizens of Muscatine and Iowa for it is we, together, who have facilitated the grand friendship with China and other countries of the world,” Lande said, citing the Stanley Center for Peace and Justice, former governors Robert D. Ray and Terry E. Branstad, and Iowa sister states as those who have helped build these relationships and provide opportunities for those who are interested in working to establish international understanding and cooperation.