SAN FRANCISCO - The fruitful partnership between The Boeing Company and its source suppliers in China illustrates the mutual benefits of win-win cooperation between the United States and China, a senior Boeing executive said.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Boeing-China President David Wang said with over 6,000 Boeing airplanes "flying with major components made in China", China now accounts for an "essential part" of Boeing`s capability to manufacture first-class aircraft.

"Airplanes cannot fly with one part missing. We have many sole source suppliers in China that are an integral part of our manufacturing system," said Wang, who also serves as vice president of international relations of The Boeing Company, the world`s largest aerospace manufacturer.

Such a strong link, he stressed, has revealed an increasing economic interdependence between the two countries, which means that Washington and Beijing must maintain continuous friendly relations, including political stability, for both sides to succeed in the future.

With China already being Boeing`s biggest customer outside of the United States and Boeing the largest purchaser of made-in-China aviation parts and components, the partnership is a good example of China-US win-win cooperation, Wang said.

"For us, every airplane exported means thousands of US jobs," he said, while expressing the belief that China will continue to be one of the most attractive export markets for the United States and for Boeing airplanes.

Noting that the export-led share of the US economy will become increasingly vital, Wang stressed that "China is one area where technology products will increase in importance for US exports".

China now has over 800 Boeing airplanes in its fleets, and Boeing has predicted that over the next 20 years, China will need more than 4,300 new airplanes worth over 480 billion US dollars.

"Clearly, if the US and China have friendly relations, Boeing airplanes will be very much welcome in China. And we look forward to having a leading share in China`s aviation market," the Boeing executive said.

Cooperation with Boeing also benefits China in many ways, Wang said, citing as an example that as an integral part of Boeing`s production system, Chinese suppliers can learn the know-how of high-quality manufacturing.

Meanwhile, after years of collaborating with China in building China`s aviation infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities, Boeing has started partnering with China on innovation in line with the same win-win approach.

In September 2010, Boeing opened a joint aviation biofuel research lab with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the coastal Chinese city of Qingdao.

The intellectual capital created at the lab will be owned and licensed to the world jointly by the two sides, Wang said, adding that the win-win approach is a model of how the world can progress.

"It cannot progress by being `I am better than you or you are better than me`. It`s got to progress by taking the best that we both have and creating innovative products for the world," he said.