Microsoft founder Bill Gates is somewhat of a celebrity in China. That may sound absolutely absurd on its face —but it’s true. Gates has visited the red giant more than a dozen times since the 1990’s, cozying up to top political officials, building goodwill and establishing research labs.
Gates has more than 4.1 million followers on Weibo —China’s answer to Twitter. Apple’s Tim Cook, also a China chaser, only has 1.4 million; Elon Musk, 1.7 million. Weibo even flipped out when Bill and Melinda got divorced; the “Bill Gates Divorced” hashtag had 830 million views.
So, yeah —Gates is the China king. So it’s no surprise Peter Schweizer caught him red-handed.
According to Peter Schweizer’s New York Times bestseller Red-Handed: How America’s Elite Get Rich Helping China Win, Gates and Microsoft went all in on outfitting the Chinese military with cutting edge artificial intelligence programs.
Here’s Schweizer…
Gates has cooperated with the regime in ways other tech titans have not. He has lent credence to the claims of the Chinese Communist Party and been rewarded with access, favors, and titles.
Schweizer says Gates was always “naive” about the repressive nature of the CCP and the role his technological contributions assisted in that repression.
Schweizer again…
In June 2005, Microsoft launched a blogging software program called MSN Spaces in China…But the program censored words like “democracy,” “human rights,” and “freedom of expression.” If you typed in those words or phrases…the blogger would receive an error message.
But Gates persisted —pushing into China, making a mint while they used his technology and platforms to control information and limit freedoms. In 2010, Gates claimed, “Chinese efforts to censor the internet have been very limited.”
With that naive mindset, Gates walked right into his biggest betrayal of all. Here’s Schweizer…
By 2010, Microsoft had taken another step in its tightening association with the Chinese government. The company set up a research laboratory in China to work on artificial intelligence (AI) with a Chinese military university, an essential area of research that would have huge implications for the economy and on the battlefield. Microsoft even started taking in interns from the People’s Liberation Army at its Asian research facility.
Somehow, Bill Gates has been able to avoid getting blasted in the press for his CCP ties, while Tim Cook and the folks at Apple get blasted at every turn. That’s not to say Cook should be off the hook —rather Gates should be on it!
When will America’s tech titans stop sharpening the swords of our enemies?
