China Xi Jinping: Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, paid a visit to China’s President Xi Jinping on Friday, as tensions between Washington and Beijing remain strong.
According to Chinese state media, Mr. Xi informed Mr. Gates that he was “the first American friend” he had met in Beijing this year.
Mr. Gates is the latest high-profile American corporate leader to visit China since its borders reopened.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is going to visit China this weekend.
“I often say that the people are the foundation of Sino-US relations, and we constantly turn to the American people and hope that the two peoples will remain friendly,” Mr. Xi was quoted as saying to Mr. Gates.
Mr. Xi’s encounter with a foreign business executive was his first in recent years. He stopped visiting internationally in 2020 when China closed its borders because of the epidemic. Mr. Xi and Mr. Gates were last seen together in 2015.
Elon Musk of Tesla, Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, and Tim Cook of Apple have all visited the nation this year.
They met with senior Chinese officials but did not meet with Mr. Xi.
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Mr. Gates is in China as co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which he co-founded with his ex-wife.
Mr. Gates stepped aside from Microsoft’s board in 2020 to focus on the foundation, which focuses on global health, education, and climate change.
He had resigned from his full-time senior position with the technological behemoth 12 years before.
Mr. Blinken, the first US cabinet official to visit China since 2019, is set to arrive in Beijing this weekend. However, it is unlikely that any significant progress would be achieved on the expanding list of disagreements between the United States and China.
