On June 16, General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping received billionaire Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and also a world-famous philanthropist. This reunion after 8 years with his American friend was also the first meeting of the Chinese leader with a foreign businessman in recent years.
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| General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping (right) receives Mr. Bill Gates in Beijing on June 16. Photo: Xinhua |
According to the Straight Times, at the meeting, Xi Jinping called Bill Gates “old friend”, a term of endearment that also shows the familiarity and trust that the Chinese leader used with US President Joe Biden during an online meeting in November 2021. “I often say that the foundation of US-China relations lies in the people of the two countries. I have always placed my hopes on the American people... Given the current global situation, we can carry out many activities that benefit the two countries and people, activities that benefit all of humanity,” Xi Jinping said.
The Chinese leader also affirmed that the country is willing to cooperate with the American billionaire and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest charitable foundations founded by Bill Gates and his ex-wife, to strengthen cooperation in related fields and support other developing countries. Beijing will deepen technological innovation cooperation with countries around the world and actively participate in and promote responses to global challenges such as climate change and public health. This is not the first time that Xi Jinping has called on US business leaders to help improve relations between the two countries. In 2021, Xi Jinping wrote to Howard Schultz, former Chairman and CEO of Starbucks (SBUX), offering to help promote bilateral relations.
This is Bill Gates’ first visit to China since 2019. He has visited the country 18 times so far. This visit to China comes at a notable time. Last week, the Financial Times reported that Beijing-based Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA), the company’s largest R&D arm outside the United States, is moving some of its top artificial intelligence (AI) experts from China to Vancouver, Canada. According to experts, the “Vancouver Plan” is seen as a response to rising political tensions between the United States and China, and a defensive move to prevent top talent from being poached by Chinese tech giants that are “thirsty” for AI researchers to develop domestic versions similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Bill Gates' visit extends the recent "landing" of leaders of a series of leading American companies to China to "catch up" with one of their largest markets. In addition, Xi Jinping's reception of Bill Gates has raised expectations that the Chinese leader will meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The US official is scheduled to visit China on June 18 and 19 to reset relations between the world's two largest economies after a series of disagreements in recent times. Mr. Blinken will be the highest-ranking US official to visit China since President Biden took office in January 2021.
Bill Gates is one of the top foreign business leaders who have pushed for investment in China. Microsoft entered the Chinese market in 1992 and is now one of the few Western tech giants to maintain a presence in the country despite the US-China trade war. Microsoft has worked tirelessly to build goodwill and a growing mission in the Asian powerhouse. Its Beijing lab has nurtured many Chinese tech talents, including Bytedance founder Zhang Yiming, Alibaba CTO Wang Jian and former Baidu President Zhang Yaqin. Gates, the world's richest man for many years, stepped down from Microsoft's board in 2020 to focus on philanthropy related to global health, education and climate change.
| Bill Gates donates $50 million to China On June 15, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Beijing municipal government agreed to donate $50 million each to the Global Health Drug Research and Development Institute (GHDDI), a Beijing-based research center founded by Gates, the Beijing municipal government and Tsinghua University. The money will support efforts to improve health outcomes around the world through lifesaving therapies for infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, which disproportionately affect the world’s poorest people. “I hope China can play an even greater role in addressing today’s global challenges, especially the difficulties facing African countries,” Gates said. |
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