"Thank you Mayor Huang for showing me your beautiful mountain city of Chongqing and for visiting Apple Jiefangbei! Great to see you again," Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday on his Weibo account, China's social media platform.
Huang Qifan, mayor of Southwest China's Chongqing, on Wednesday showed Cook around the Apple Store in the Jiefangbei business center of Chongqing, domestic news portal thepaper.cn reported. The store opened in January 2015.
"We were informed that someone from the headquarters would visit our store, but we had no idea it would be Cook," an employee was quoted as saying in The Chongqing Morning Post.
"We were surprised and asked him when the iPhone 7 would be released. He said he didn't know either," the employee noted.
Cook's visit drew speculation on whether new cooperation will be achieved between the Chongqing municipal government and the US tech giant, according to media reports.
Apple will increase its investment in China and plans to set up an independently operated research and development center in the country by the end of 2016, the first in the Asia-Pacific region, Cook noted on Tuesday when he met Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli in Beijing, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
Terry Gou, founder and CEO of Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (also called Foxconn), Apple's major supplier, also attended the meeting.
On Tuesday, Xie Fuzhan, Party chief of Central China's Henan Province, also met Cook and Gou, thepaper.cn said.
Foxconn began to establish factories in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan, in 2010 when Apple and Foxconn signed a strategic agreement with Henan, according to the report.
In January, Foxconn announced plans to start construction of a smart factory pilot project in Chongqing, Xinhua reported on January 21.
Apple will actively participate in -China's "Internet Plus" strategy and smarter manufacturing, Cook noted on Tuesday.
