比尔·盖茨：我时隔四年再度访问中国

过去几天，我对中国进行了一次令人难忘的访问。我想分享一些此行留给我的印象，从刚刚与习主席的会面开始。

作为我在盖茨基金会工作的一部分，我在疫情之前每年都会访问中国、印度、欧洲国家，以及至少一个非洲国家和美国华盛顿特区。在这些访问中，我会与研究人员、政府机构代表、倡导者和其他致力于应对健康和发展不平等的专家们进行交流。这些访问总是令我受益匪浅，所见所闻也让我倍感鼓舞。

能够恢复这些定期访问实在是太好了。这是我四年来首次访问中国，而在这之后，我将立即前往西非，这也是我自2018年以来首次访问这个地区。我在三月份还去了印度。

在今年的每次出访中，我都会传递一个关键信息：在过去二十年中，全球在减少贫困和改善健康方面取得了重大进展，但是新冠疫情减缓甚至逆转了一些全球目标的进展，比如减少贫困、抗击结核病和疟疾等。非洲国家尤其面临多重挑战，包括气候变化的影响、高企的粮食价格、不断上升的贫困率、激增的传染病及债务压力。

解决这些问题需要创新，包括新的工具和新的方法。中国在这方面拥有丰富经验。中国已在本土成功消除了包括脊髓灰质炎和疟疾在内的多种疾病、研发的青蒿素等药物拯救了全球数百万疟疾患者的生命、在减贫方面取得了巨大进展，并在可再生能源领域进行了重大投资。因此我十分期待看到中国这四年来发生的变化。

此行的亮点之一是全球健康药物研发中心（GHDDI），这是一个由盖茨基金会与北京市政府和清华大学在六年前合作成立的机构。GHDDI展示了公共和私营部门在药物研发方面开展合作的一个有效路径。在本周早些时候的一次活动上，我谈到了该中心在结核病和疟疾方面的工作，也承诺我们将在未来五年持续提供支持。

■ 比尔·盖茨在全球健康药物研发中心主任丁胜的陪同下参观实验

我还参观了国家作物种质资源库。这是一个重要的作物研究中心，同时也作为种质长期保存空间，为全球科学家提供粮食作物的遗传数据。在访问中，我见到了一些农业科学家，他们正与世界各地——特别是非洲——的同行合作，研究新型水稻品种，帮助农民提高生产力并尽可能减少对化肥、农药和灌溉的需求。

■ 比尔·盖茨在国家作物种质资源库与高达2.4米的世界上株高最高的水稻植株标本合影

他们的工作成果已经惠及亚洲和非洲的数百万农户。在农业领域持续进行技术和创新投资，对于中国各地提升农业生产力发挥了重要作用。更令我振奋的是，中国承诺与低收入国家分享他们的专业知识和创新实践。通过帮助农民适应气候变化、增加收入并应对粮食危机，中国正在为全球粮食安全做出重大贡献。

我们的基金会与中国伙伴开展合作已超过15年，取得了丰硕成果，作物种质资源库和GHDDI只是其中两个例证。在接下来的几个月里会有很多重大时刻，包括在巴黎举行的新全球融资协议峰会、在新德里举行的二十国集团峰会和在迪拜举行的第28届联合国气候变化大会等。中国和其他国家可以通过这些平台做出更多贡献。

我深信，如果我们携手合作应对气候变化、健康不平等和粮食安全等问题，我们将能够取得非凡的进展。我期待着探索新的合作和创新机遇，为所有人创建一个更加美好的未来。

I’m visiting the country after four years away

I’m seeing first-hand some of the innovations that could contribute to global progress.

I want to share a few impressions from my time in China. I just had a meeting with President Xi, in which we discussed the importance of addressing global health and development challenges, like health inequity and climate change, and how China can play a role in achieving progress for people everywhere.

As part of my work with the Gates Foundation, I’ve tried to visit China, India, countries in Africa and Europe, and Washington D.C. each year. On these trips, I’d talk to researchers, government leaders, advocates, and other experts who are working on inequities in health and development. I’d always learn a lot, returning inspired by what I saw and heard.

It’s great to be able to resume these regular visits. This was my first trip to China in four years, and immediately after this trip, I’m headed to West Africa for the first time in five years. And I went to India in March.

On each trip this year, I have a key message: Over the past two decades, the world made significant strides in reducing poverty and improving health outcomes, but COVID was a big setback and even reversed progress on some global goals like reducing poverty and fighting TB and malaria. Many African countries, for example, are particularly impacted by overlapping challenges, including the effects of climate change, high food prices, escalating poverty rates, surging infectious diseases, and significant debt pressures.

Even though the challenges facing many African countries are complex, I’m optimistic that innovation in health, agriculture, digital finance, and energy will help improve lives there. I’m looking forward to meeting leaders and young people helping to accelerate progress when I visit West Africa.

Solving these problems requires innovation—both new tools and new ways of doing things. China has eliminated diseases, including polio and malaria, within its borders, developed drugs like artemisinin that have saved millions of lives around the world from malaria, made great strides in poverty reduction, and has made significant investments in clean energy and climate adaptation. So I was looking forward to seeing what’s changed since my last visit four years ago.

One highlight was my visit to the Global Health Drug Discovery Institute, an organization our foundation helped establish six years ago in partnership with the Beijing Municipal Government and Tsinghua University. GHDDI represents a productive way for public and private partners to work together on discovering new medicines for diseases that disproportionately impact the world’s most vulnerable populations but have applications for the world. I spoke about the institute’s work on TB and malaria yesterday, and we also extended our partnership over the next five years.

I also got to visit the National Crop Genebank of China. This facility is a prominent crop research center and also serves as a long-term preservation storage space for seeds so that scientists around the world have access to important genetic data. During my visit, I met with agricultural scientists who are working with their counterparts worldwide, particularly in Africa, on new rice varieties that help farmers increase their productivity and minimize the need for fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation.

The benefits of their work have reached millions of farming households across Asia and Africa. The continued investment in technology and innovation within the agricultural sector has played a significant role in the increase in agricultural productivity throughout China. What excites me even more is China’s commitment to share their expertise and innovative practices with low-income countries. By assisting farmers in adapting to climate change, increasing their income, and combating food crises, they are making a substantial contribution to global food security.

The genebank and GHDDI are just two examples of the promising work the foundation has seen in China in the more than 15 years we’ve been partnering here. And there will be more opportunities for China and others to step up later this year, including a summit on development financing in Paris, a meeting of the G20 in New Delhi, and the COP28 climate conference in Dubai.

I’m convinced that if the world works together to address climate change, health inequity, and food security we can make extraordinary progress. And I’m looking forward to exploring new opportunities for collaboration and innovation that will make a better future for everyone.