Asian Tech Press (June 16) -- China's President Xi Jinping met with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Beijing on Friday.

"You are the first American friend I met with in Beijing this year," Xi told the Microsoft Corp. co-founder, according to Chinese media reports.

During the meeting, Xi briefly mentioned the US-China relationship. He told Gates, "I often say that the foundation of the Sino-US relationship is among the people, and we always look to the American people and hope that the two countries' people will continue to be friendly."

Xi also expressed appreciation for Gates and his foundation's long-standing commitment to promoting global poverty reduction, health, development and philanthropy.

The day before this meeting, the Gates Foundation announced a commitment to donate US$50 million to the Global Health Drug Discovery Institute (GHDDI) over the next five years in order to further strengthen the centre's research and development capacity.

Founded in 2016 and based in Beijing, the GHDDI is a non-profit global public health and drug innovation institute launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Tsinghua University and the Beijing Municipal Government.