Chinese President Hu Jintao visited a Boeing Company aircraft manufacturing plant on Wednesday, on the eve of a summit with President George W. Bush, where he will be pressed to reduce China's trade surplus with the United States. On the second day of his first official visit to the United States as president of the world's most populous country, Hu toured three Boeing assembly lines at the aviation giant's facility in the city of Everett, near Seattle, where the company assembles its wide-body jetliners. Led through the plant by Boeing commercial airplane president Alan Mulally, Hu was briefed on the new Boeing 787 jet currently under development. Boeing calls the airplane a “super-efficient airliner.” Hu then addressed several thousand Boeing workers, saying China's relationship with Boeing is an example of the potential of bilateral trade and that China will need thousands of new airplanes in coming years. “Boeing's cooperation with China is a living example of the mutually beneficial cooperation and win-win outcome that China and the United States have achieved from trade with each other,” Hu said. “In the next 15 years, the demand for new aircraft will reach 2,000 planes. This clearly points to a bright tomorrow for future cooperation between Boeing and China.” Boeing has estimated that China will require 2,600 new airplanes over the next 20 years. China has the world's fastest-growing aviation industry, and from 2001 to 2004 China was Boeing's largest export customer, with over $8 billion in orders. Eighty Boeing airplanes worth $4.6 billion were bought by China earlier this month. Boeing aircraft comprise 63 percent of the commercial airplanes used in China. Hu is later scheduled to deliver what his aides said would be an important policy speech before flying to Washington for his White House meeting with President George W. Bush on Thursday.
