Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was received by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday, on a visit to support China’s efforts in medical research.
This meeting, announced by Chinese public television, is very rare for an American businessman: in recent years, only a handful have been received individually by Mr. Xi, in particular the boss of Apple Tim Cook and that of Amazon Jeff Bezos.
The channel had not immediately broadcast images of the meeting.
This interview comes two days before a long-awaited visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a context of strong diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Washington.
“You are the first American friend I have met this year.” “We have always placed our hopes in the American people and hope that the friendship between the two peoples will continue,” Xi Jinping was quoted as saying by the People’s Daily.
Bill Gates is received as co-president of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, she however specified.
Arrived Wednesday evening in China, the billionaire and philanthropist had explained to come to meet there partners on the subjects of health and development.
His foundation announced Thursday that it would donate 50 million dollars (45.7 million euros) to support Chinese efforts in the fight against malaria and tuberculosis.
This sum is intended to support “efforts to improve health outcomes around the world through lifesaving therapies for infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria”, said the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
These diseases “disproportionately affect the poorest countries on the planet”, she insisted.
With this trip, his first to China since 2019, the co-founder of Microsoft is following in the footsteps of several other behemoths of the American economy, including the boss of Tesla, Twitter and SpaceX, Elon Musk, who came in May.
Almost closed to the world for almost three years due to Covid, the country only reopened six months ago.
The foundation will also renew its cooperation with the Global Health Drug Discovery Institute (GHDDI) – founded in Beijing by Bill Gates -, Beijing municipal authorities and officials from the prestigious Tsinghua University.
“China has made tremendous progress in reducing poverty and improving health in the country,” Gates said Thursday during a speech at GHDDI.
“I hope China can play an even greater role in addressing current challenges, especially those facing African countries,” he added.
Bill Gates last visited China in 2019, when he met First Lady Peng Liyuan to discuss her foundation’s work in AIDS prevention.
During a previous trip in 2018, he posed in Beijing next to a pot filled with excrement to draw attention to the lack of toilets in developing countries.
During his visit in May, Elon Musk was received by several Chinese ministers and visited the huge factory of his brand of electric cars in Shanghai, where he was able to talk to the staff.
JPMorgan Chase bank CEO Jamie Dimon, another major player, visited the country earlier this month, while Apple CEO Tim Cook was in Beijing in March. He praised his company’s “symbiotic” relationship with China.
Other big American bosses like that of Starbucks or General Motors have also gone to China in recent weeks to meet with representatives of the Chinese government.
Business travel has picked up since China abandoned its so-called “zero Covid” health policy and reopened its borders this year.
06/16/2023 20:02:04 – Beijing (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
