Ray Conner, the Vice Chairman of U.S. aerospace giant Boeing, has reiterated the huge importance of China to his company.
CNN cites Mr. Conner as stating that 150,000 jobs at Boeing depend on contracts and orders with China.
Boeing executives are thought to be concerned about the rhetoric of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. He has threatened to impose new tariffs on trade with China, which could well be self-defeating and harm businesses like Boeing.
Earlier in the week, we reported that one of Mr. Trump's tweets cost U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin in excess of $2 billion.
That's because the stock market was concerned about the financial implications to the company of Trump's proposed cost-cutting. As a result, Lockheed Martin's share price fell by around 4 percent.
Although China's domestic aircraft manufacturing industry continues to grow at a remarkable pace, the projected growth of demand over the next few years means that the country will buy as much as $1 trillion worth of aircraft from Airbus and Boeing.
