By Andrew Stern and Christopher Buckley
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao wrapped up a U.S. visit on Friday that set an optimistic tone for cooperation on key international issues but made limited progress on economic disputes straining ties between the two global powers.
After the pomp and summit-level meetings of Washington, where he was pressed on North Korea, human rights and currency policy, Hu took his roadshow to Chicago and was feted at a gala dinner in U.S. President Barack Obama's hometown.
The Chinese leader ended his four-day state visit with stops at a Chicago school and a business exhibition.
"Being among you makes me feel young myself," Hu, 68, said to laughter from students, urging them to study hard. "Youth are the future of the country and the hope of the world."
Obama, speaking at a separate event, said the visit helped to give U.S. business more access to China's enormous domestic market -- a key goal for U.S. economic planners.
"We struck a deal to open Chinese markets to our products," Obama told General Electric Co workers in Schenectady, New York. "We want to open up their markets so that we've got two-way trade, not just one-way trade."
Underscoring the message that China means opportunity for U.S. business, hundreds of Chicago-area and Chinese executives signed deals on Friday at the first U.S.-China Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum, organizers said.
The agreements were part of $45 billion (28 billion pounds) in deals announced during Hu's visit.
"I'm confident that bilateral China-U.S. investment in the next year or two will grow even faster and help the United States with employment growth and entering the Chinese market," Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming told the business forum.
Among the deals signed, diversified manufacturer Honeywell and Haier Group, China's top home appliance maker, agreed to develop low-emission, energy-efficient products.
And Aviation Industry Corp of China set up a 50/50 joint venture with General Electric to develop avionics systems for new commercial aircraft.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said China could help U.S. business to meet Obama's goal of doubling American exports by 2015 but cited "exasperation" over China's record on intellectual property rights, government decision-making and discriminatory policies.
"The bottom line is that improved implementation of China's WTO (World Trade Organisation) commitments will lead to a more balanced trade relationship," Locke told the group.
BETTER TONE
Analysts said Hu's trip went smoothly enough to help improve relations after a flare-up in tensions last year over issues including trade, North Korea and Internet censorship.
The world's top two economies are already closely linked and China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt.
But critics cite China's large trade surplus with the United States -- some $270 billion last year in Washington's view -- and accuse Beijing of keeping the yuan weak against the dollar to make Chinese exports artificially cheap.
Obama pressed Hu on the currency issue but won no specific commitment to let the yuan rise more quickly, as many U.S. lawmakers have demanded.
The visit, described by some experts as the most important U.S.-China meeting in more than 30 years, featured upbeat comments about cooperation and assurances from Hu that Beijing represents no threat to U.S. interests.
"The Obama administration accomplished exactly what it set out to do: stake out its positions on a wide range of issues in the U.S.-China relationship, appear strong on concerns such as human rights, bring a little forward momentum to the relationship," Elizabeth Economy, a China expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in an online commentary.
Obama -- whose 9-year-old daughter Sasha tried out her Chinese language skills with Hu -- has said the two countries will help shape the 21st century.
Chinese media lauded the trip as a "historic masterstroke" to ease tensions. State television gave blanket coverage to the ceremony of Hu's state dinner and welcome at the White House, reflecting a desire for China's leader to be portrayed as a valued and honored player on the world stage.
U.S. officials touted Hu's remark at a joint news conference that more needs to be done on human rights but his comments were largely left out of Chinese news coverage.
Hu did not comment publicly about the yuan during the trip and Chinese officials said Beijing would stick to its policy of gradual exchange rate reform.
A top U.S. Treasury official said Washington is seeing progress on Beijing's commitment to let the yuan appreciate but more work is needed on that issue and other parts of the U.S.-China relationship.
KOREAN BREAKTHROUGH
Obama appears to have succeeded in convincing China to press its ally North Korea to head into talks with South Korea to try to calm mounting tension on the divided peninsula.
An Obama administration official said the United States had warned China it would redeploy forces in Asia if Beijing failed to rein in North Korea.
Seoul and Pyongyang agreed on Thursday to hold high-level military talks, the first since the North's artillery attack on the South in November.
But experts looking at the U.S.-China summit were cautious about the long-term prospects for dispelling mistrust and of easing strains over China's military buildup and U.S. calls for a more market-oriented exchange rate for the yuan.
In a Cold War echo as Hu departed, a U.S. court on Friday sentenced a Michigan man to four years in prison for trying to spy for Beijing -- a reminder that, amid the talk of closer ties, the two powers are still using every means to size up the other.
(Writing by Andrew Quinn; Additional reporting by Nick Carey, Brad Dorfman, Jeff Mason, Thomas Ferraro, Ann Saphir and Mary Wisniewski and Jeremy Pelofsky, and Ben Blanchard, Zhou Xin and Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by John O'Callaghan)
