Bacon and Eggs, Tomato and Eggs: Can the U.S. and China Share the Same Table?

By Keyu Guo

In 1985, an agricultural delegation from Hebei Province in northern China visited Muscatine, Iowa. Its leader was Xi Jinping, now China’s president. During the visit, Xi stayed with the Dvorchak family, where one of his memories was a simple breakfast of bacon and eggs.

“You were the first group of Americans I came into contact with,” Xi later told his Iowa friends. “To me, you are America.”

Forty-one years later, I met Gary Dvorchak in Beijing.

Gary was away when Xi visited, but his parents welcomed the young Chinese official into their home and gave him Gary’s bedroom. Decades later, Gary has made Beijing his home, where he has lived for 13 years.

So when I asked him about his favourite breakfast, his answer surprised me: tomato and scrambled eggs, a distinctly Chinese dish.

Today, headlines often frame US-China relations as a binary, zero-sum rivalry – a forced choice between bacon and eggs or tomato and eggs, as though we must decide which culture, country or system is superior.

But must these two dishes really battle it out in an arena? Or can they simply share the same dining table?

The connection between Xi and the Dvorchak family has continued across the decades. Every Spring Festival – China’s most important holiday – letters cross the Pacific between Beijing and Iowa.

In a response to his Iowa friends this past February, President Xi wrote that his warm memories from 41 years ago remain vivid. He emphasised that the hope of China-US relations lies with the people; that their foundation is grassroots connections; that their future depends on young people; and that their vitality comes from exchanges between communities and regions.

Reflecting on his family’s legacy – including the transformation of his childhood home at 2911 Bonnie Drive into the “Sino-US Friendship House” museum – Gary emphasised the importance of face-to-face interaction.

“I think it’s incredibly important to have people come here and meet each other, and the same for Chinese young people to go to America and see what it’s really like. The more we have of that, the more people can understand each other as human beings, rather than the caricatures presented in the media.”

That kind of exchange is already reaching thousands of young people.

Since the launch of an initiative to invite 50,000 American young people to China over five years, more than 40,000 have reportedly taken part, according to China’s Ministry of Education. The program has given young Americans an opportunity to experience China firsthand while creating another bridge between people in the two countries.

I have seen the same spirit among American students studying at Beijing Language and Culture University.

Students from different academic and professional backgrounds eagerly practise their Mandarin pronunciation, greeting one another with “ni hao” and “xiexie”. One student even built a following of more than 50,000 people on Chinese social media by posting humorous videos about cross-cultural communication with his Chinese girlfriend. He uses his own experiences to teach English while giving his Chinese audience a glimpse into everyday life across the cultural divide.

The same principle can extend beyond education and cultural exchange.

Gary now works in cross-border AI investment, a field that is often discussed almost exclusively in terms of competition. But he sees another side of the story: technological progress can also come through interaction, investment and cooperation across borders.

He points to developments in China, from factory automation to humanoid robotics, as examples of innovation that can create opportunities for businesses on both sides. Technology, he argues, can create more possibilities when companies look for areas where they complement each other rather than simply compete.

As technology advances, our options expand.

AI should not make bacon and eggs and tomato and eggs mutually exclusive. Instead, it can offer new ways to refine both and adapt them to different tastes.

Perhaps the point is not to decide which breakfast belongs on the table.

Perhaps there is room for both.

In fact, I might just head to the kitchen and order some bacon, eggs and tomatoes – and see how they taste when cooked together.

Keyu Guo is a journalist covering China’s changing social landscape, including public policy, international relations, social development, and emerging trends in society.