bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Josh Ye

This article originally appeared on ABACUS
People’s Daily, the main mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party, has a special columnist.
Microsoft founder-turned-philanthropist Bill Gates wrote an article published in Chinese on Monday, hailing China as a model of success for African nations.
“Everytime I visit China, I can feel tremendous changes underway -- whether it’s the towering skyscrapers or construction sites in progress,” he wrote.
The piece comes just before the start of the triennial China-Africa summit in Beijing, with Gates highlighting two areas where he thinks African countries could learn from China.
“The first is how to eradicate the diseases and poverty that still exist in many regions in Africa. The second is how to unleash African countries’ potential in agriculture,” he explained.
We spoke to Microsoft’s Mandarin-speaking bot
The Seattle-based magnate, with a net worth of more than US$95 billion, said that China’s agricultural productivity has grown about 4 to 6 times faster than sub-Saharan countries over the past few decades.
This isn’t the first time that Gates has praised China’s development model. He also spoke on a similar topic in an interview with the People’s Daily last March.

He was also elected a foreign member of Chinese Academy of Engineering last year.
Since stepping down as chairman of Microsoft in 2014, Gates has become one of the world’s biggest philanthropists. Many of his philanthropic efforts with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation take place in Africa.
Meanwhile, China has been pouring billions of dollars of aid and loans into Africa as part of its Belt and Road initiative, even as critics question if Beijing might be pushing African governments into a “debt trap” in a bid to gain diplomatic influence over the continent.
On Monday, President Xi Jinping said that “China does not interfere in Africa's internal affairs and does not impose its own will on Africa.”
Microsoft and DJI team up to make drones smarter for businesses

For more insights into China tech, sign up for our tech newsletters, subscribe to our Inside China Tech podcast, and download the comprehensive 2019 China Internet Report. Also roam China Tech City, an award-winning interactive digital map at our sister site Abacus.



China’s DeepSeek adds expert chatbot mode ahead of much-awaited V4 release

As AI race with US intensifies, China’s Alibaba launches 10,000-card computing cluster

China turns to offshore wind farms, subsea data centres to ease AI computing bottleneck

Bill Gates urges Africa to learn from China in People’s Daily op-ed

Gates praises China’s healthcare innovation and agricultural development

We spoke to Microsoft’s Mandarin-speaking bot

Bill Gates urges Africa to learn from China in People’s Daily op-ed

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Gates praises China’s healthcare innovation and agricultural development

We spoke to Microsoft’s Mandarin-speaking bot

Gates praises China’s healthcare innovation and agricultural development