Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates is on a tour of China these days. During this, he met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. China’s official media has confirmed this. Xi Jinping and Bill Gates last met in 2015.
According to the People’s Daily, Xi Jinping said during his meeting with Bill Gates that they are the “first American friends” he has met in Beijing this year. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also visit China later this week.
During the conversation, Jinping said that now that the world is slowly emerging from the impact of Covid, people should move around, communicate more and understand each other better.
Jinping said he believes that the foundation of Sino-US relations is people-to-people ties. “China is ready to engage in technical cooperation with countries worldwide and actively participate and respond to global challenges,” Jinping added.
According to the report, President Xi Jinping told Bill Gates that you have made important contributions to China’s development; you are our old friend. However, the purpose of the meeting between Jinping and Gates has not been publicly announced.
State media reported that in his meeting with Xi, Gates presented his views on the current situation and future cooperation with China. During the meeting, Gates said China had attracted worldwide attention after handling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tesla’s Elon Musk, JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon and Apple’s Tim Cook visited China before Bill Gates this year. These industrialists had met with many big Chinese officials, but Xi Jinping did not meet any of these industrialists.
