Bill Gates says 'China's rise' is a 'huge win for the world'
Gates also said that China needs to play a 'stronger role' in world governance
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Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said that China's rise is a "huge win for the world" during an interview in Australia on Monday.
Gates made the comment during an interview with the Lowy Institue, a think tank based in Sydney, Australia.
"I tend to see China's rise as a huge win for the world," Gates said. "I mean, that's 20% of humanity. They today match their portion of the global economy, and their portion of the global population match exactly, you know, countries like Australia, U.S., we have per capita GDP's five times what the Chinese have. So we have a disproportionate share of the world's economy."
His comments about the communist country came in response to a question asking Gates how "bullish" he was on China.
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Bill Gates attends the World Leaders' Summit "Accelerating Clean Technology Innovation and Deployment" session on day three of COP26 on November 02, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell - Pool/Getty Images / Getty Images)
"You know, I do think the current mentality of the U.S. to China and which is reciprocated is kind of a lose-lose mentality, that if you ask U.S. politicians ‘hey, would you like the Chinese economy to shrink by 20% or grow by 20%,' I'm afraid they would vote that ‘yeah, let’s immiserate those people,' not understanding that for the global economy, the invention of cancer drugs, the solution of climate change, you know we're all in this together."
While painting China's rise positively, Gates acknowledged that the country is "not a democracy," and is an "outlier today in terms of that level of wealth and still being as autocratic as they are."
Chinese President Xi Jinping is seen at the end of the Chinese Communist Party's 20th Party Congress on a giant screen a commercial district of Hangzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province on Sunday, Oct 23, 2022. (Chinatopix via AP / AP Newsroom)
During the interview, Gates also said that the U.S. is politically in a weak state, adding that countries like China need to play a bigger role in world governance.
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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Chairman Bill Gates speaks during 2019 New Economy Forum at China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE) on November 21, 2019 in Beijing, China. (Hou Yu/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"The U.S. is politically weaker today, I would say, than it's been and you know, that's scary for the world. The current world system is designed around U.S. leadership," Gates said. "As other countries have gotten richer, these middle-income countries including China and India need to play a stronger role in world governance."
A spokesperson for Gates did not immediately respond to FOX Business.