The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation paid out or approved for future payment roughly $23 million in grants to Chinese government organizations during its 2022 reporting period, tax documents show.
The nonprofit listed grants to over 20 different Chinese entities, including Chinese government agencies, labeled as “foreign government” on its 2022 tax forms. The majority of the grants were for projects related to public health research and analysis, including several projects involving diseases and vaccine delivery.
Recipients included the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese National Health Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China, among others. These government entities cumulatively received $11.3 million from the Gates Foundation.
Several of the entities funded by the Gates Foundation report to the China’s State Council, the “executive body of the supreme organ of state power,” according to the Chinese government. The State Council is largely composed of members of the Chinese Communist Party.
Moreover, the Gates Foundation funded Chinese universities that regularly perform defense work for the Chinese military.
Peking University, Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University received millions from the Gates Foundation, but they engage in defense research for China and are overseen by China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. These universities received almost $6 million from the Gates Foundation.
The Gates Foundation also contributed $100,000 to China Ministry of Science and Technology for “global health” awareness and analysis, tax filings show.
The Ministry of Science and Technology is involved with the Chinese government’s “863 Program.”
The 863 program “provides funding and guidance for efforts to clandestinely acquire U.S. technology and sensitive economic information,” according to the U.S. Director of National Intelligence. The House Select Committee on the CCP said the program supports the advancement of the Chinese military in a 2023 report.
Should the Gates’ Foundation’s payments to China be investigated?
The Ministry of Science and Technology listed the Chinese government’s 863 Program as an active program on its website until at least 2018; however, the program was officially incorporated into the National Key Research and Development Program of China under the ministry in 2016, according to the state-run media outlet Xinhua.
The Ministry of Science and Technology was also among the entities involved in the Chinese government’s “Thousand Talents Plan,” according to a 2019 Senate Homeland Security Committee report. The Thousand Talents Plan is a CCP-controlled program aimed at recruiting researchers and scientists with access to “cutting-edge technology,” according to the Senate report.
China reorganized its science ministry in March to address American efforts to restrict China’s access to advanced technologies, particularly those with military applications, Voice of America reported.
The Gates Foundation also funded China’s National Health Commission to the tune of $3.2 million.
Some American lawmakers have accused the National Health Commission of being complicit in China’s COVID-19 cover-up. The commission in 2021 resisted efforts to investigate whether or not the virus originated in a Chinese lab.
Gates, who is the founder of Microsoft and co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has historically been friendly toward China.
In June 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping called Gates an “old friend,” CNN reported. Gates in January 2023 said that “China’s rise” is “a huge win for the world,” Fox Business reported.
The Gates Foundation also paid millions to groups aligned with the Democratic Party in 2022, tax filings show.
New Venture Fund, a nonprofit under Arabella Advisors’ dark money network that bankrolls liberal and Democrat-aligned activists across the country, received over $70 million from the Gates Foundation in 2022.
The Gates Foundation did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s multiple requests for comment.
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