China cannot just stop talking about the Bill and Melinda Gates divorce
China cannot just stop talking about the Bill and Melinda Gates divorce
Bill and Melinda Gates' divorce has sent shockwaves throughout China, where the co-founder of Microsoft (MSFT) has achieved a level of celebrity unmatched by almost any other Western entrepreneur.
By Wednesday, the "Bill Gates' divorce" hashtag had accumulated over 830 million views and 66,000 discussion posts on China's Twitter-like Weibo — far surpassing the 91 million views accumulated when Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019.
Weibo users expressed concern about various issues, ranging from how the couple would divide their massive fortune to the impact of the divorce on Microsoft and their charitable foundation. The pair has invested $53.8 billion in global health, poverty alleviation, and other causes through their philanthropic organization. According to the Bloomberg, Bill Gates is worth approximately $146 billion, and the couple has pledged to divert the majority of their wealth to charity.
"You and Melinda have made enormous contributions to people all over the world; I hope your foundation can continue to help more people even if you don't hold hands in the future," one Weibo user wrote in response to a post on Bill Gates' official Weibo account announcing the divorce in Chinese.
While Bill Gates no longer leads Microsoft, the company has spent decades cultivating relations with Beijing. Its products have a sizable presence in China, despite the exclusion of other Western technology companies.
While Facebook (FB) is blocked on the mainland, Microsoft's LinkedIn is still one of the few Western social media platforms available. Additionally, the Bing search engine is operational, whereas Google has been unavailable for years.
And the business's success has undoubtedly aided Bill Gates' personal appeal: he now has more than 4.1 million followers on Weibo, surpassing Tesla CEO Elon Musk's 1.7 million and Apple CEO Tim Cook's 1.4 million.
People’s Opinions
Even prominent Chinese technology figures joined the conversation on Weibo: Kai-fu Lee, the former head of Google (GOOGL) China who was instrumental in establishing Microsoft Research Lab Asia, a hugely influential network in China, expressed surprise with the news.
Microsoft Research Lab Asia, the company's Beijing-based research lab, has nurtured many of Chinese tech talent, including Bytedance founder Zhang Yiming, Alibaba (BABA) technology chief Wang Jian, and former Baidu (BIDU) president Zhang Yaqin.
In a Weibo post, Lee described Bill and Melinda as "the most affectionate couple I've seen among celebrity entrepreneurs."
Bill Gates and His Contribution to China
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation opened an office in Beijing in 2007 and has since collaborated with the Chinese government on various domestic projects ranging from HIV prevention to poverty reduction.
Since the 1990s, Bill Gates has visited China more than a dozen times and developed cordial relations with top leaders. He was received by former Chinese President Jiang Zemin in March 1994, just before China gained official Internet access.
China was eager to liberalize its economy and catch up with the West in terms of technology. The trip — during which Gates assured Jiang that Microsoft would assist China in developing its software industry — aided Microsoft in expanding its presence in China.
Gates hosted former Chinese President Hu Jintao for dinner at his Washington state home in 2006.
In addition, Chinese President Xi Jinping wrote to Gates last year to express gratitude for his assistance in combating Covid-19.
Gates was even dubbed "the Chinese people's old friend" by the ruling Chinese Communist Party in 2018, a title the Party occasionally bestows on foreigners with whom it maintains a close relationship.
Meanwhile, some distraught Chinese users expressed that the divorce had shaken their faith in marriage on social media. For 27 years, the couple had been married.
"Even you are divorced," one user wrote on Weibo in response to Bill Gates. "How can the rest of us have any hope of marrying?"
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