BEIJING – Some 800 world business leaders were treated to an address from President Hu Jintao last night, but many were disappointed that he didn’t discuss revaluing the country’s currency, the renminbi, or yuan, despite hints from several quarters that an adjustment was near. Some speculated that the textile quotas recently imposed by the Bush administration, which are extremely unpopular here, may have dampened the momentum that was building for detaching the yuan from the dollar.

Instead, in his address to the Fortune Global Forum at the Great Hall of the People, Mr. Hu reviewed China’s economic successes of the past 26 years, portraying them as the rewards of the country’s persistent struggle against “brutal foreign aggression and incompetent feudal rule.”

He cited the opening up of the country under President Deng Xiaoping in 1978 as furthering progress, which resulted in GDP growth of 9.4% annually over that period and foreign trade expansion of 16%. Mr. Hu also claimed a reduction of in the numbers of the rural poor over that time from 250 million to 26 million.

What lies ahead? The country’s goal for the first 20 years of this century is to build a “moderately prosperous society.” By 2020, he ambitiously projects that China’s GDP will have quadrupled to approximately $4 trillion, allowing per capita income to rise to $3,000.

Mr. Hu emphasized he would put the people’s needs first, and stick with the “direction of reform for a socialist market economy.” He vowed to continue to open Chinese markets, to encourage and protect foreign investors, and to further the protection of intellectual property rights. In other words, he celebrated the current trends under way in China, and committed to furthering them.

Elsewhere during the day, the Partnership for New York made progress in its work with a Chinese real estate development company, Vantone, to encourage Chinese companies to establish headquarters in New York. The partnership held a reception to celebrate Vantone’s decision to lease about 700,000 square feet of office space downtown, which would be sublet to companies looking for an American home.

The idea mirrors the initial lease concept of Rockefeller Center, which involved European companies using the center as a base. The plan would serve the dual purpose of enticing Chinese companies to consider New York their gateway to America, as well as cultivating a new and growing tenant population for downtown. Larry Silverstein was among those present who appeared enthusiastic about the plan.