Microsoft (MSFT.O) co-founder Bill Gates is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a one-on-one session on Friday in Beijing.
The meeting, considered to be one of the core objectives of the American business magnate’s first trip to China since 2019, will constitute Xi’s first meeting with a foreign private entrepreneur in more than five years.
Inside sources would not say what the main topic of discussion will be, but climate change, labor issues and global health and development challenges are likely to be high on the list of Gates’ agenda.
Gates, who stepped down from Microsoft’s board in 2020 to focus on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s philanthropic projects, last met with Xi in 2016, although the foundation did donate more than $5 million to China at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
