Chinese leader Xi Jinping will meet Bill Gates on Friday, state media reported, as part of the the Microsoft Corp. co-founder’s first visit to the Asian nation since the coronavirus pandemic began.
State broadcaster China Central Television reported the meeting was set to take place, without providing more details.
Earlier, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Beijing city government agreed to donate $50 million each to fight infectious diseases such as malaria.
The money will go to the Global Health Drug Discovery Institute, according to a statement from the Gates Foundation. The institute is a nonprofit established in 2016 by the Gates Foundation, the Beijing municipal government and Tsinghua University.
In a speech Thursday at the institute, Gates congratulated China for eliminating malaria within its borders. He also praised Chinese scientists for working to fight the disease around the world, according to a text of the remarks released by the Gates Foundation.
Gates also met Beijing Mayor Yin Yong on Thursday, according to the Beijing Daily. Yin credited the institute with achieving “breakthroughs” in recent years and vowed continued support.
In a tweet Wednesday announcing his arrival in Beijing, Gates said that he was “excited to visit with partners who have been working on global health and development challenges” with the Gates Foundation.
The Gates Foundation said the mission of the global health institute was to address a disparity for countries that “bear 90% of the global burden of infectious diseases, but only 10% of global spending on drug research and development goes toward diseases that disproportionately affect those populations.”
--With assistance from Jing Li.
