"You don't show up in the China market and just begin to do business. You don't show up with a product and just begin to sell it. It's a highly nuanced market that takes years of relationship building," Huntsman said.

Nevertheless, he warned, there are no guarantees.

"It's still a complicated market in which to succeed," the governor said. "But it's so vast and will factor so prominently in our future, all of our industry sectors, we have no choice but to take it seriously."

Huntsman had hoped to spend his final day in China with his wife, Mary Kaye, and their adopted daughter, 7-year-old Gracie Mei. The family was to have traveled to Gracie Mei's birthplace, Yangzhou, a city about three hours northwest of Shanghai, for the first time since she left the orphanage there as an infant.

But the Huntsmans decided to postpone the visit to Yangzhou until they could also bring home the newest addition to their family, a baby girl in India. They had hoped the adoption paperwork would be completed in time to head to India today, but it has been delayed at least a month.

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