In a joint appearance with New York City First Lady Chirlane McCray Wednesday, Hillary Rodham Clinton urged US cities to get on the Big Apple’s pre-K bandwagon to better compete with China.

The former secretary of state and likely Democratic presidential candidate told parents and reporters in Brooklyn that the Chinese are investing in pre-K for “every Chinese child” and they’re doing so because “they look at the same research.

“The Chinese — they get it. They know we’re in a competition, so that kids who grow up are going to be competing for jobs, competing for income, competing for the future,” she said.

Clinton’s remarks served as a pat on the back to ­McCray’s husband, Mayor de Blasio, who served as a senior aide in Hillary’s 2000 bid to become New York’s first woman US senator.

Clinton joined McCray to announce the rollout of a citywide initiative encouraging parents to talk to their kids to close the “word gap” between affluent and poor children.