EVERETT, Wash.- Calling his country’s relationship with the Boeing Company an example of the “win-win” potential of Chinese-American trade, Chinese President Hu Jintao yesterday told an audience of aircraft workers that China will need thousands of new planes in coming years.

Mr.Hu’s speech at the company’s massive Everett plant comes just days after Chinese officials confirmed a commitment to order 80 Boeing 737 jets, in a deal valued at $5.2 billion at list prices. The order has yet to be finalized, and airlines typically negotiate discounts.

“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,” Mr. 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.

The Boeing deal is one of several purchases the Chinese have announced recently as officials try to ease tensions over the massive trade gap between the America and China. It is one of several issues President Bush is expected to raise when Mr. Hu heads to Washington, D.C.

[China will keep the yuan’s value “basically stable” as the country continues to transform its foreign exchange rate regime and seeks to narrow its trade gap, Mr. Hu said, according to Bloomberg News.]

Mr. Hu’s meeting Thursday with Bush will cover a broad agenda, from China’s much-criticized currency and other trade policies, to its aggressive search for oil and its positions on the developing nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea.

Workers at the Boeing plant were eager for a glimpse of Hu.

“China is one of the largest markets for Boeing,” an engineer at the Everett plant. “The guy’s coming here. I’m going to listen to what he has to say.”

Mr.Hu began his day yesterday at his downtown Seattle hotel by visiting with China scholars and academics, including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, and former Defense Secretary William Perry.

On Tuesday, Mr. Hu toured Microsoft Corporation’s suburban Redmond campus and dined at company chairman Bill Gates’s home. Mr. Hu said he admired what Mr. Gates had achieved. He also sought to reassure Mr. Gates that China is serious about protecting intellectual property rights, a key concern for the company as it battles widespread piracy of its Windows operating system there.

“Because you, Mr. Bill Gates, are a friend of China, I’m a friend of Microsoft,” Mr. Hu said through a translator. “Also, I am dealing with the operating system produced by Microsoft every day,” he added, to laughter.

Mr. Gates responded: “Thank you, it’s a fantastic relationship,” and then quipped: “And if you ever need advice on how to use Windows, I’ll be glad to help.”

Messrs. Hu, Gates, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and an entourage of Chinese dignitaries saw some business technology demonstrations and toured Microsoft’s Home of the Future.

Demonstrators both in support and opposition to Mr. Hu lined the streets near his downtown Seattle hotel. Supporters waved Chinese and American flags.

Members of the spiritual movement Falun Gong, condemned by the Chinese government as an evil cult, staked out all four corners around the hotel Tuesday to protest treatment of the movement’s followers in China.

At the entrance to Microsoft’s campus, protesters waved signs in Chinese and English that read “Stop web censorship” and “Release all political prisoners.”