Washington: President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Iowa Governor Terry Branstad to be the next US Ambassador to China, choosing an "old friend" of Beijing, after upsetting the Communist giant by his protocol-shattering talk with the Taiwanese president.

Branstad (70) has longstanding ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping, dating back to mid-1980s, when the latter was a county official seeking a closer relationship with Iowa's robust agriculture sector.