President Xi Jinping has stressed the role of people-to-people exchanges in improving China-US relations, which have deteriorated in recent years, and said that he always hopes the friendship between the two peoples will continue.
Xi made the remarks on Friday at a meeting in Beijing with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Gates arrived in China on Wednesday, his first visit to the country since 2019. He said on social media after his arrival in Beijing that he is "excited to visit with partners who have been working on global health and development challenges" for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for more than 15 years.
Xi told Gates that he was the first American friend he had met in Beijing this year. "As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, people should move around and communicate more to enhance mutual understanding," he said.
Noting that the foundation of Sino-US relations lies among the people, Xi said that he always hopes for the friendship between people from both China and the United States to continue.
Gates' visit comes as many foreign business leaders have traveled to China to meet senior Chinese officials in recent months, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, amid tensions between Beijing and Washington.
It also comes ahead of a trip by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China on Sunday amid high expectations to stabilize relations between the world's two largest economies.
Xi applauded Gates and the foundation's long-term efforts in promoting global poverty reduction, health, development and philanthropy. He briefed Gates about China's development and reiterated that China would never seek hegemony.
China is primarily focused on solving its own problems, and maintaining long-term stability and sustained development with a population of over 1.4 billion is a significant contribution to world peace, stability, and prosperity, he said.
While saying that China is striving to comprehensively advance national rejuvenation through the Chinese path toward modernization, Xi stressed that the nation will not follow the old path of exercising hegemony with strength, but will work with other countries to achieve common development and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
As the world is undergoing major transformations unseen in a century, Xi said that the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative he proposed are all for the purpose of providing China's solutions to addressing global challenges.
China is willing to engage in extensive cooperation with other countries around the world in scientific and technological innovation, actively participate in dealing with global challenges such as climate change, epidemic response and public health, and continue to strengthen cooperation with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and provide support and assistance to other developing countries to the best of its ability, Xi said.
Gates spoke of the progress and future plans for collaboration of his foundation with China, saying that China has made great strides in poverty reduction and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, setting a good example for the rest of the world.
China is accelerating innovative development, which is beneficial to itself, other developing countries and the entire world, Gates said.
The foundation is committed to further strengthening cooperation with China in the fields of innovation, global poverty reduction, public health, drug development, agriculture and rural development, and will promote successful experiences and technologies in more developing countries, he added.