Xi Jinping welcomes Bill Gates as 'first American friend' to visit Beijing this year

June 16 (UPI) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with Bill Gates in Beijing on Friday saying the co-founder of Microsoft was the "first American friend" he had met in the capital this year.

The president told Gates that the people were the foundation and hope for friendly China-U.S. ties, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said in a Twitter post.

"The world is emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, people should move more, communicate more, and enhance understanding," Xi said, according to state broadcaster CCTV. "I often say that the foundation of China-U.S. relations lies in the people. We always place our hopes on the American people and hope that the friendship between the two peoples will continue."

The meeting came as Gates' foundation -- the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- inked a deal with the Beijing city government to each invest $50 million into the foundation's Global Health Drug Discovery Institute to develop drugs to treat tuberculosis, malaria and other infectious diseases.

Xi said China was willing to engage with all countries on extensive scientific and technological innovation cooperation and sought to "actively participate in and promote global challenges such as climate change, epidemic prevention and public health."

Calling Chinese scientists "brilliant," Gates said that based on the significant achievements in reducing poverty and improving health outcomes seen within China he looked forward to seeing the progress the partnership would contribute going forward.

"China can play an even bigger role in addressing the current challenges, particularly those facing African countries," Gates said.

Microsoft has operated a research facility in China for 25 years and Gates is among the most well-regarded of top-tier Western business tycoons, but it shuttered its LinkedIn service in 2021, replacing it with a version that lacked social media features before fully withdrawing from China last month.

But Microsoft angered Beijing last month when it alleged that state-backed Chinese hackers were developing ways to "disrupt critical communications" between the United States and its partners in the Asia Pacific in the event of an escalation of U.S.-China tensions.