Bill Gates in China to meet President Xi on Friday, say sources
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The last reported meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mr Bill Gates was on the sidelines of the Boao Forum in 2015.
PHOTOS: EPA-EFE, REUTERS
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HONG KONG – Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday during his visit to the country, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
This will be Mr Xi’s first meeting with a foreign private entrepreneur in recent years. The sources said the encounter may be a one-to-one meeting. A third source confirmed they would meet, without providing details.
The sources did not say what the two might discuss. Mr Gates tweeted on Wednesday that he had landed in Beijing for the first time since 2019 and that he would meet partners who had been working on global health and development challenges with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The foundation and China’s State Council Information Office, which handles media queries on behalf of the Chinese government, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Mr Gates stepped down from the board of Microsoft in 2020 to focus on philanthropic works related to global health, education and climate change. He quit his full-time executive role at Microsoft in 2008.
The last reported meeting between Mr Xi and Mr Gates was in 2015, when they met on the sidelines of the Boao Forum in Hainan province. In early 2020, Mr Xi wrote a letter to Mr Gates thanking him
The meeting would mark the end of a long hiatus by Mr Xi in recent years from meeting foreign private entrepreneurs and business leaders, after he stopped travelling abroad for nearly three years as China shut its borders during the pandemic.
Several foreign chief executives have visited China since it reopened early in 2023, but most have mainly had meetings with government ministers.
Premier Li Qiang met a group of foreign CEOs, met Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang in May.
The mood of the foreign business community towards China, however, has turned cautious as Sino-US tensions intensify and Mr Xi increases the country’s focus on national security.
Mr Gates’ visit also comes ahead of a long-delayed visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China
Mr Blinken had a phone call with China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Wednesday, during which Mr Qin urged the United States to stop meddling in its affairs
