BEIJING, June 16 (TMTPost)— Chinese President Xi Jinping urged U.S. to take steps to improve relations between the world’s two biggest economies, through both official channels and private ones, in his first meeting with Microsoft Corp’s cofounder Bill Gates in more than three years.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

Calling Gates “our old friend”, Xi appreciated the tech magnate for his involvement and a lot of work for China’s development these years, in the meeting at Beijing’s Diaoyutai state guest house on Friday, according to the state media China Central Television (CCTV). “You are the first American friend I've met this year,” Xi said. “I always believe that the foundation of Sino-US relations lies in the people, and I'm placing my hopes on the American people. With the current global situation, we can carry out various activities that benefit our two countries and our peoples, as well as activities beneficial to the whole humanity. We all can act as facilitators.” The leader stated people should travel and communicate more to increase their understanding since the world emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, another state media the People’s Daily reported.

The meet came a day after Gates delivered a speech to advocates tech innovations including artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle serious global challenges, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates’ family foundation, announced to pledge US$50 million to Global Health Drug Discovery Institute (GHDDI) over the next five years, a new funding to bolster the institute’s drug discovery capacity. Cofounded by the Gates foundation, the Beijing Municipal Government and Tsinghua University in 2016, GHDDI is the first public-private non-profit institution on innovative research in China. It primarily focuses on developing new drugs for communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria.

Xi praised Gates and his foundation for their long-term commitment to promoting poverty reduction, health, development and social welfare around the world. Xi said his proposals of the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative aims to offer China’s solutions to global challenges, as the momentous changes unseen in a century are accelerating across the globe. He stressed China, more than anything else, shall focus on addressing its own problems. As a large country with a population of over 1.4 billion, China's long-term stability and sustained development are major contributions to world peace, stability and prosperity, according to Xi. He added China will consolidate achievements of poverty alleviation, meet the goal of rural revitalization, and keep improving public health in rural area.

Xi underlined China is committed to promote the great rejuvenation of the nation through a Chinese way to modernization. He pledged that China will never follow an old path for a superpower to seek hegemony; instead, it will work with other countries to achieve common development and build a community with a shared future for humanity. He expressed willingness to cooperate with any other country on tech innovations, join in and promote responses to worldwide challenges, such as climate change, prevention and control of the pandemic and the public health.

China set a good example for the world as it made remarkable achievements on poverty reduction and the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, Gates commented. The billionaire told Xi his foundation has made significant progress in cooperation with China these years. He pointed out to speed up innovation and development in China is beneficial to China, developing countries, and the world. As the co-chair of the foundation, Gates said his foundation is committed to further strengthening cooperation with China in areas such as innovation, global poverty reduction, public health, drug research and development, and rural agriculture, and sharing successful experiences and technologies with other developing countries.