He praised Yuan Longping and Tu Youyou so much, his 18th visit to China! Gates Talks on Health in Beijing | Global | Tu Youyou

On June 15th, Bill Gates gave his first public speech in Beijing after a four-year visit to China. This former richest man in the world praised Yuan Longping, the father of hybrid rice, and Tu Youyou, the Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine, in this speech titled "Responding to Global Challenges with Innovation".

Gates is the founder of Microsoft and co chair and director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He arrived in China on June 14th, and as soon as the plane landed, it attracted high attention.

On the 15th, Gates posted on Weibo stating that China has valuable experiences in health, agriculture, nutrition, and poverty reduction that are worth sharing with the world. He looks forward to continuing to work with Chinese partners to make more contributions to global progress in the future.

Gates promises to donate $50 million to collaborate with China on research and development

On the evening of June 14th, Gates updated a message on Weibo, writing: "I just landed in Beijing, this is my first visit since 2019.". The Gates Foundation has been collaborating with Chinese partners to address global health and development challenges for over 15 years. I am very happy to meet my Chinese partners.

According to the official Weibo account of the Gates Foundation on June 15th, the foundation has pledged to donate $50 million to global health drug research and development centers over the next five years. The Beijing Municipal Government has promised to provide funding support of equal scale, and Tsinghua University will continue to support the development of GHDDI in areas such as research platform construction and sharing, achievement transformation, and talent cultivation.

The Gates Foundation said that it would continue to work with the Beijing Municipal Government and Tsinghua University to support GHDDI in drug research and development for the treatment of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, so as to reduce their impact on the world's poorest people and improve global health.

It is reported that GHDDI was co founded by the Gates Foundation, Tsinghua University, and the Beijing Municipal Government in 2016. As China's first non-profit new drug research and development institution founded under the PPP model, GHDDI is committed to developing innovative drugs and new technologies to address major disease challenges in the global health field.

GHDDI focuses on the transformation research from laboratory to clinical, and its key research fields include antiviral research and research on tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases.

Chinese experts and local farmers at a project demonstration planting site in Abuja, Nigeria. Source Gates Foundation

Praising Yuan Longping: He enables many people around the world to have enough to eat

In his speech, Gates praised Yuan Longping, the father of hybrid rice, for overcoming key issues that affect people's quality of life and enabling many people around the world to have enough to eat.

According to the full speech released by the Gates Foundation, he said——

Yuan Longping's achievements have always deeply attracted me. He cultivated the world's first hybrid rice variety, which not only changed China's agriculture and economy, but also helped feed a large population. Inspired by his work, the world's most important agricultural research platform, the Consultative Organization on International Agricultural Research, has invested more funds in rice research. Yuan Longping also trained over 3000 rice scientists from over 50 countries to bring their experiences back to their own countries. It is difficult to imagine any innovation that can rival the survival and development of billions of people.

Today, the world needs a new generation of rice varieties. The Gates Foundation has been supporting Chinese scientists in cultivating hybrid rice that can withstand severe weather tests and thrive. Pakistan has also recently begun planting new varieties, with yields increasing by more than 1/3.

However, due to various reasons, the new rice varieties have not been able to achieve the same level of popularity in African countries. Therefore, the foundation supports collaboration between Chinese and West African rice scientists, not only cultivating new varieties that adapt to local conditions, but also collaborating with local partners to ensure that farmers can access these new varieties and adapt to increasingly deteriorating climate conditions. Pilot projects currently being carried out in some West African countries have shown that local food can achieve up to 50% increase in production.

This example once again highlights the importance of partnerships. If it were not for the Chinese team and their rich experience and professional knowledge in rice breeding, this project would not have been successful. And without the African team and their understanding of local farmers and food systems, this would also not work. This cooperation model is worth promoting around the world.

China obtained the World Health Organization's certification to eliminate malaria in 2021

Praising Tu Youyou for bringing the world the main drugs for treating malaria

Eliminating malaria globally is another important task of the Gates Foundation.

Currently, one child dies from malaria every minute in the world, and approximately 250 million people worldwide suffer from serious illnesses due to malaria each year. Gates said that although the vast majority of malaria cases now occur in Africa, this was not the case in the 1950s. At that time, there were at least 30 million malaria cases in China every year, and more than 300000 people died as a result.

Gates mentioned in his speech that in 1990, nearly one in ten children worldwide lived under the age of five, mostly in low - and middle-income countries, and most died from preventable infectious diseases. Now, in just one generation, the child mortality rate has significantly decreased to one in 25, equivalent to over 7.5 million children's lives being saved each year.

During the same period in China, the number of child deaths decreased by as much as 94%. In short, history has shown that when we set ambitious goals and give them our all, these goals can be achieved.

He emphasized that thanks to significant scientific breakthroughs by Chinese scientists, the number of malaria cases and deaths in China has steadily decreased. The new antimalarial drugs brought by Tu Youyou to the world are still the main drugs for treating malaria worldwide, and she was awarded the Nobel Prize for this.

In 2010, China launched the China Action Plan to Eliminate Malaria. In 2017, China achieved zero local malaria infections for the first time and ultimately obtained a malaria free certification from the World Health Organization in 2021.

Beijing, GHHDI scientists are currently working

"This is a remarkable achievement, but Chinese scientists have not stopped there," Gates said. The Global Health Drug Development Center is carrying out groundbreaking work, such as collaborating with two international organizations, the Malaria Drug Association and the Malaria Drug Accelerator, to develop a preclinical candidate malaria drug that is expected to overcome parasite resistance, cure with just one dose, and prevent infection.

He also mentioned that GHDDI has also established important cooperation with international tuberculosis research and development organizations, and has begun to produce exciting results. GHDDI has found a series of new compounds that can synergize with existing tuberculosis drugs, which means that the treatment course of tuberculosis may be significantly shortened, from the standard four to six months to only one to two months. If these drugs pass clinical trials, they will significantly reduce disease transmission and lower disease burden.

[Tidal News+]

On March 18, 1994, a plane slowly landed at Beijing Capital Airport. At the airport exit, Du Jiabin, the General Manager of Microsoft's Beijing Representative Office, is waiting for his first visit to China - the CEO of Microsoft, then the world's richest man, 39 year old Bill Gates. However, when Du Jiabin saw Bill Gates wearing big glasses and a doll face, he couldn't believe that the world's richest man in front of him was dressed in jeans and tennis shoes, and all his luggage was just a laptop.

Bill Gates led Microsoft on the path to China in this way. The purpose of his visit to China this time is to promote the upcoming release of Windows 95 in China. At that time, he took the initiative to propose to meet two scientists in China, one is particle physicist Zhou Guangzhao, and the other is female scientist Yang Fuqing, who led the Peking University Blue Bird Project.

Bill Gates and Yang Fuqing, a female scientist who led the Peking University Blue Bird Project

In the autumn of 1995, Bill Gates quietly arrived in China with his newlywed wife, father, and a group of more than 10 people including stock god Warren Buffett. In addition to meeting with government officials, Bill Gates also visited the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Prince Kung's Mansion, the Temple of Heaven, cycled with Buffett through the campus of Peking University and Tsinghua University, and visited the Terra Cotta Warriors, Dunhuang and the Three Gorges. This visit to China may be a honeymoon trip planned by the Gates couple.

Less than half a year since his last visit to China, Bill Gates has returned to China. At the end of 1995, he visited Guangdong. With the end of this visit, Microsoft China has also completed its first move in China: opening up its own market and establishing sales channels.

In the summer of 1996, Bill Gates first visited Shanghai, the most commercialized city in China, and felt the unique spirit and charm of this Chinese metropolis. Gates signed a memorandum of understanding with the Shanghai Municipal Government to support the construction of the Shanghai Information Port, and visited Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, giving speeches.

In December 1997, Bill Gates visited Beijing again and gave a speech at Tsinghua University. The enthusiasm of college students moved Bill Gates. On his return flight, he decided to change Microsoft Research Asia from India to Beijing, China. Bill Gates also said the famous sentence: "If I could choose when and where to go back to college, I might choose Stanford University in the early 1980s or Tsinghua University in the late 1990s."

In December 1997, Bill Gates visited Tsinghua University to give speeches and answer questions from college students

In the spring of 1999, after finishing his conference in Hong Kong on March 10th, Bill Gates arrived in Shenzhen by direct train. Although he only stayed for a short 6 hours, his "Venus Plan" initiative still lingers in the industry's memory to this day. The Venus Plan was the initial move to expand the Windows platform from PC to other terminal devices, and this plan caused a sensation in the industry. Shortly thereafter, the Venus Plan put them in an awkward position. An official from the Ministry of Information Industry summarized, "Can you succeed by avoiding the government and finding some manufacturers to run to Shenzhen to create a 'Venus'? Do you have such great capabilities yourself?" Bill Gates also realized that the government's public relations were not done well, and Microsoft immediately made adjustments afterwards.

In the autumn of 2001, Bill Gates was invited to attend the APEC Conference held in Shanghai and delivered three consecutive speeches within 48 hours. He signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Shanghai Municipal Government and promoted the upgraded product Windows XP for Windows.

The eighth trip to China in the spring of 2003 appeared more formal and had a larger scale and momentum compared to previous ones, and was known as a decisive visit. Due to the crucial moment of Microsoft China's 10th anniversary and the delicate moment of verifying the cooperation between Microsoft and the Chinese government, the direct outcome of this visit also determines the development speed of Microsoft China in the next decade. At 2 pm on February 27th, at the Microsoft "New Generation Software Technology" conference held at the Beijing National Olympic Center, Bill Gates announced his ambitious goals in the eyes of nearly 10000 college students NET plan. On the same day, Lei Jun obtained approval from the board of directors in his office in Jinshan, doubling the R&D investment for that year. Lei Jun said that Kingsoft should not compete with Microsoft across the entire product line and the world. We are only competing with them in office software, and only in Chinese office software.

In the summer of 2004, Bill Gates successively attended the first China International Service Industry Conference, CEO Summit, 2004 Microsoft New Technology Outlook Conference and other activities, and extensively met with political and business people, involving an unprecedented number of industries and people. Bill Gates' series of "goodwill" measures are seen by some industry insiders as a response to China's upcoming "Anti-Monopoly Law. Microsoft staff responded that this is because the "seamless computing" advocated by Microsoft requires more cross-industry supporters.

In the spring of 2007, Bill Gates visited Tsinghua University again after a decade and delivered a brilliant speech titled "The Road to the Future: Innovating Together in China". He attended the Microsoft Asian Government Leaders Forum and the Boao Forum for Asia. During this trip to China, Gates left behind many golden phrases: "Someone always asks me, where will the next Bill Gates appear? I believe that the next great success will come from Asia." "Google often makes me insomnia." "My next dream will turn to charity."

On August 7, 2008, Bill Gates, who retired from Microsoft, brought his family to Beijing to fulfill the promise he made a year ago to watch the Beijing Olympics.

In 2009, Gates made his first visit to China after retiring from Microsoft. In addition to being the founder of Microsoft and the founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he also held the title of Chairman of Terra Energy in the United States. This is a new energy company led by Gates in 2006, dedicated to nuclear energy research and development. BYD, China Academy of Atomic Energy Sciences, National Nuclear Power Technology Corporation, and China National Nuclear Corporation are all visitors to this retired veteran in the US technology industry. He also visited Peking University twice and was elected an academician of the CAE Member in 2017.

Bill Gates' 2017 Tour to Peking University

On November 16, 2018, Bill Gates participated in the "New Generation Toilet Expo" held in Beijing and promised to invest $200 million in the development of new toilets. The topic of "toilet revolution" is of great concern to Gates, and it belongs to the key area of Gates' promotion of cooperation with China - hygiene and human health.

In November 2018, Bill Gates held the "New Generation Toilet Expo" in Beijing

From November 20 to 21, 2019, Bill Gates participated in the 10th anniversary of tuberculosis prevention and control cooperation between the National Health Commission of China and the Gates Foundation, participated in the 2019 Innovation Economic Forum, and