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Apple CEO Tim Cook seen touring Beijing Apple Store, posing with iFans (Update: Had ‘great meeting with Chinese officials’)

Seth Weintraub | Mar 26 2012 - 4:28 am PT

China’s Twitter, Sina Weibo, is filling up with pictures of Tim Cook visiting the Beijing Apple Store this morning.

It is not clear if this is his first trip to China as CEO, but Cook has been to China many times in the past as COO and was last seen negotiating China Mobile’s contract in mid-June at the behest of former CEO Steve Jobs who, according to his biography, never visited the country.

Cook, in response to the New York Times’ iEconomy stories, told Apple employees in a company-wide email that Apple cared about “every worker in its supply chain.” There is no shortage of happenings in China currently that could be bringing Cook over, including the Proview ‘iPad’ name fight, strikes at Foxconn’s new iPhone plant, and negotiations with the biggest carrier in the world China Mobile. Apple got regulatory approval for the iPad in China this week.

Sina.com suggests it is the carriers who he’s in town for.

Update: the WSJ reports that Tim Cook was in town to meet government officials.

Cook, who is on his first trip to China since becoming chief executive of the Cupertino, Calif.-based company, “had great meetings with Chinese officials today. China is very important to us and we look forward to even greater investment and growth here,” said spokeswoman Carolyn Wu. She declined to identify any of the Chinese officials or give further details on the meetings.

Interestingly the Journal notes that Tim Cook is called ‘Captain Cook’ in China.

Cook, who serves on the board of Nike, is wearing a Nike LiveStrong jacket in the images above.

More pictures, including a hotel spotting, are below: