Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday during his visit to China, two people familiar with the matter said.

The meeting will be Xi’s first meeting with a foreign private businessman in recent years. People said that the encounter could be a one-on-one meeting. A third source confirmed that they would meet, without providing details.

Sources did not say what the conversation might be between the two. Gates tweeted on Wednesday that he has arrived in Beijing for the first time since 2019 and will meet with partners working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on global health and development challenges.

The foundation and China’s State Council Information Office, which handles media inquiries on behalf of the Chinese government, did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Gates resigned from Microsoft’s board in 2020 to focus on global health, education and climate change philanthropy. He left his full-time executive role at Microsoft in 2008.

The last reported meeting between Xi and Gates was in 2015, when they met on the sidelines of the Boao Forum in Henan Province. In early 2020, Xi wrote a letter thanking Gates and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, pledging China’s support, including $5 million for the fight against COVID-19.

The meeting will mark the end of a long hiatus from Xi meeting with foreign private entrepreneurs and business leaders in recent years, after the Chinese president stopped traveling abroad for nearly three years as China struggled during the pandemic. had closed their borders.

Several foreign CEOs have visited China since it reopened earlier this year, but most have mainly met with government ministers.

Premier Li Qiang met with a group of foreign CEOs in March, including Apple’s Tim Cook, and Tesla’s Elon Musk met with Vice Premier Ding Zhujiang last month, a source told Reuters.

However, the foreign business community’s mood toward China has turned cautious as Sino-US tensions escalate and Xi has increased the country’s focus on national security.

Gates’ visit comes ahead of US Secretary of State Anthony Blanken’s long-delayed visit to China, scheduled for June 18-19, aimed at strengthening ties between the world’s two largest economies and strategic rivals. .