Microsoft's Long Past and Uncertain Future in China

Bill Gates meets with then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin, February 2003. Aiming to assuage Chinese concerns over the security of their network, Microsoft agreed to allow Chinese authorities to view the source code for its flagship operating system, Windows XP. A year earlier, the software giant had also established a joint venture with an investment firm run by Jiang's son. *Credit: Liu Weibing, Xinhua/AP Photo*

LinkedIn is quitting China: but what of its parent, Microsoft, and its links to the world’s second-largest economy? Seattle-based Microsoft has one of the longest relationships with China of any major Western tech company. Founder Bill Gates has met every Chinese leader from Jiang Zemin to Xi Jinping. Yet the returns on this long strategic investment are looking pretty meager these days. Microsoft garnered just 1.8 percent of its 2019 global revenue in China, company president Brad Smith sa

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