After Musk and Cook, Bill Gates also makes a beeline for China

After recent visits by CEOs of technology giants — SpaceX's Elon Musk and Apple's Tim Cook— Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft landed in China on Thursday to meet with global health and development partners. 

Gates has been working with his nonprofit, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to address global health and development challenges for over 15 years. 

He believes that solving problems like climate change, health inequity, and food insecurity requires innovation. Gates tweeted that he was excited to visit Beijing to unlock progress for more people around the world.

China has a lot of experience in innovation, from developing malaria drugs to investing in climate adaptation. 

He hopes to unlock that kind of progress for more people around the world. His visit comes after a string of recent visits to China by US business leaders. 

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon visited China earlier this month, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, another tech billionaire, travelled to the country in late May, his first visit in more than three years. 

Musk, who has extensive business interests in China, met with senior officials in Beijing and visited Tesla's Gigafactory on the outskirts of Shanghai for a late-night meeting with staff. 

In March, Apple CEO Tim Cook visited Beijing, saying his company enjoyed a "symbiotic" relationship with China. 

The CEOs of other major multinational companies, including Starbucks and General Motors, have also recently made trips to the country and met with officials.

Gates' visit to China comes as the country ended strict Covid controls that saw it largely closed off from the world for almost three years. 

The country is now opening up, and business leaders are taking advantage of the opportunity to meet with officials and explore new business opportunities. 

Gates' visit is part of a broader trend of US business leaders looking to expand their businesses in China.