Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao wrapped up his four-day official visit to the United States late on Wednesday and left Boston for Canada to continue his four-nation tour. 

 

During his one-day stay in the northeast US port city, Wen addressed an audience of more than 800 at Harvard University on China's splendid ancient civilization, its reforms and opening-up, and its modernization plan.

 

He also held talks with Massachusetts State Governor Mitt Romney and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, toured a terminal of Bostonport, and paid a visit to a farm outside the city, the capital of Massachusetts.

 

While meeting with Romney and Menino, the Chinese premier said that Massachusetts has a relatively large number of Chinese students and is one of the US regions which had the earliest trade links with China.

 

He expressed the hope that as the China-US relations of constructive cooperation are continuously forging ahead, Boston and Massachusetts as a whole will play a more vital role in increasing contacts, friendship and cooperation between the Chinese and American peoples.

 

Both Romney and Menino agreed that trade and economic contacts between Massachusetts and China have brought much tangible benefits to the people in the US state, including job opportunities. They hoped that Massachusetts and Boston and China will expand their cooperation in the future.

 

Wen's four-nation tour will also bring him to Mexico and Ethiopia.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2003)