China’s President Hu Jintao is to pay a state visit to Denmark next week as the first Chinese president to do so.

According to Politiken, Hu Jintao will be visiting Denmark on his way to the G20 meeting which is to be held in Los Cobos in Mexico on June 18 and 19.

“We have never had a Chinese presidential visit, so this is a unique event,” says Prof. Verner Worm, director of the Confucius Institute, which is a collaboration between the Copenhagen Business School-Renmin University.

“There has been a lot of talk for many years that we would like to have a Chinese presidential visit, and now it is to happen. This means that relations between Denmark and China will be raised to a higher level and improve,” he adds.

Most Danish industrial segments from agriculture to the pharmaceutical industry are active in China, and Worm says the upcoming visit will be to Denmark’s benefit.

“It gives some concrete possibilities to sign something now. But it is also something that can be used in the future. When you are in China you will be able to say that the president has visited us, and that is a benefit to industry,” Worm says.

Relations between Denmark and China have not always been the best. Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Lars Løkke Rasmussen both incurred the wrath of the Chinese and a subsequent cooling of relations between the two countries for receiving the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, at the official government residence at Marienborg.

Denmark has since made it clear that Denmark does not support national independence for Tibet.

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