Bill Gates visit to China signals Beijing is open to a thaw in relations with US

Bill Gates visited Beijing on Friday and was granted a rare meeting with President Xi Jinping. The philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder is just the latest in a string of American business leaders to visit China as the ruling communist party attempts to tell the world it is open for business. Mr Gates tweeted ahead of the meeting that he was “excited” to meet with “partners” who he could work with on global health and development challenges, and while this was clearly the headline topic of the meeting, the fact Gates was granted an audience, on what is the Chinese leader’s…