by Julie Zhu
HONG KONG, June 14 (Reuters) – Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday during his trip to China which began on Thursday, two sources familiar with the matter said.
It will be the first time in several years that Xi Jinping has met a foreign private entrepreneur. The meeting is expected to be one-on-one, according to both sources.
A third source confirmed the meeting, without providing details.
The sources did not indicate what the two men might discuss. Bill Gates announced on Twitter on Thursday that he had arrived in China, where he had not been since 2019.
He said he would meet with partners who have worked with him through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Gates Foundation and the Chinese government’s press relations office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The last known meeting between Bill Gates, who left the Microsoft board in 2020 to devote himself to philanthropy, and Xi Jinping dates back to 2015, on the sidelines of the Boao forum in Hainan province.
In early 2020, Xi Jinping wrote a letter of thanks to Bill Gates and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their help in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in China.
Bill Gates’ visit to China comes after a recent spate of trips to the country by foreign business executives after the Chinese economy reopened earlier this year.
It also comes a few days before a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China in a context of strong tensions between Beijing and Washington. (Reporting by Julie Zhu in Hong Kong and Beijing bureau, with input from Greg Roumeliotis in New York; writing by Brenda Goh; Blandine Hénault for the French version, editing by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)
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