Before Thursday night’s big bash in Chicago where Mayor Richard Daley will welcome China’s President Hu Jintao to the Windy City, several business executives with Chicago connections met with the Chinese leader and President Barack Obama in a Wednesday afternoon gathering at the White House.
Attending the meeting were James McNerney, chairman and chief executive of Chicago-based Boeing Co. and Greg Brown, the president and chief executive of Motorola Solutions Inc. in suburban Schaumburg.
Obama is hosted the session at 12:20 Eastern time with U.S. and Chinese business leaders to talk about increasing U.S. exports to China and encouraging Chinese investment in the U.S., the White House said in a release. A press conference is expected soon.
Among the Chinese business leaders attending the meeting were Lu Guanqiu, the founder of China’s Wanxiang Group, a massive auto-parts company which has a U.S. outpost, Wanxiang America Inc. in Elgin.
Wanxiang America, which has acquired more than two dozen small- to medium-size U.S. auto-parts companies around the country, is run by Lu’s son-in-law, Pin Ni.
The meeting was also attended by Obama’s economic team and Mayor Daley’s brother Bill, the new White House Chief of Staff.
