Bill Gates is seen at Peking University on March 24, 2017. [Photo by Zhu Xingxin/China Daily]

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and chairman of TerraPower, has been elected as a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), one of the country's top academic institutions, CAE said on its website on Monday.

The CAE recently elected 67 new domestic members and 18 new foreign members. Among the 18 foreign experts, 10 come from US, 3 from the UK, 3 from Australia, 1 from Japan, and 1 from Russia.