CHICAGO — Chicago’s mayor courted Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday during a whirlwind visit that included a tour of a local high school and a stop at a business expo in an effort to boost economic ties between the world’s second-largest economy and companies in Chicago and elsewhere in the Midwest.
“We in Chicago, we in the region, we in the Midwest want to act as a gateway for Chinese business investment into America, and at the same time we want to make sure that our businesses are a gateway into China as well,” Mayor Richard Daley said after squiring Hu to the expo, where about a dozen Chinese businesses with operations in the Midwest had set up exhibits to show off their companies.
Hu was impressed.
“These businesses have injected fresh momentum into the American economy and created jobs here,” Hu said through a translator. “The Chinese government will continue to encourage our companies to do business and make investments here.”
Hu arrived in Chicago on Thursday after two days of White House meetings. His overnight Chicago trip focused largely on economic ties between the third-largest U.S. city and China.
When Daley first went to China nearly seven years ago, he visited an elementary school where all the students spoke proficient English. Daley got to show off a school of his own Friday when he toured a Chicago high school with Hu where students can learn Chinese.
The city’s Confucius Institute is housed at Walter Payton College Preparatory High School, a prestigious math, science and language academy near downtown.
