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Chinese President Xi Jinping met some of the country’s top entrepreneurs including Alibaba’s Jack Ma on Monday as Beijing looks to reinvigorate private business and drive stronger economic growth.
Ma was the most prominent victim of Beijing’s tech crackdown and his attendance marked a clear signal that China’s most famous entrepreneur had been rehabilitated after four years in the political wilderness.
The Alibaba founder’s combative speech in late 2020 on the eve of Ant Group’s planned public listing led Xi to cancel the group’s blockbuster IPO and kicked off a crackdown on the power and influence of the country’s billionaire class.
Analysts said Xi’s first high-profile meeting with private entrepreneurs in several years signalled Beijing’s desire to present a more positive disposition towards the battered private sector. State media footage on Monday showed Ma standing and clapping alongside more than two dozen Chinese entrepreneurs as Xi entered an ornate ballroom in Beijing.
“Ma is sitting there in the front. It means private business is still important,” said Li Chengdong, head of ecommerce think-tank Haitun.
“Internet companies were the most active and hard-charging private companies — the regulatory storm they faced led many to focus on the rise of the state economy,” he said. “Now there will be more balance.”
State media said Xi gave an “important speech” at the event. Li Qiang, China’s premier, who normally oversees economic affairs, was also present but the meeting was presided over by Wang Huning, Xi’s top political theorist, according to state media. Video showed Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and Xiaomi chief Lei Jun reading from prepared remarks.
Chinese officials have been trying to improve the country’s business environment after a years-long property sector slowdown that, along with the campaign to rein in big tech and other sectors, damped investor and consumer sentiment and dragged on economic growth.
In the past, Xi has used similar meetings with business leaders to promise tax cuts and a level playing field with state enterprises.
“The meeting’s purpose is to tell [the private sector,] ‘We want to support you, we need you to boost tech innovation and consumption,’” said Zhang Xiaoyan, professor of finance at Tsinghua University, speaking at the Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association in Hong Kong.
She added that the government wanted to “inject confidence” in Chinese companies.
Investors and Chinese internet users poured over the seating chart of Monday’s forum to gauge the importance Beijing placed on the companies and individuals arrayed before Xi.
Unitree founder Wang Xingxing, whose robots have been featured in military exercises and news shows, was seated front and centre, flanked by Ren of Chinese national champion Huawei. Yu Renrong, head of a semiconductor company Will Semiconductor and Liu Yonghao, founder of agriculture conglomerate New Hope, were also seated in the first row.
Other tech executives included Robin Zeng, chair of leading battery maker CATL and Meituan boss Wang Xing. Tencent chief Pony Ma, Wang Chuanfu, chair of electric vehicle maker BYD and artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng were also present.
The emergence of DeepSeek’s pioneering AI models has helped renew interest in Chinese technology and ignited a bull market in Chinese tech stocks. The Hang Seng Tech index, a benchmark of the top 30 tech companies listed in Hong Kong, is up 24 per cent since the start of the year.
Notably absent from video footage of the event were Baidu founder Robin Li and JD.com boss Richard Liu. Baidu’s Hong Kong shares fell 7 per cent on Monday, while those of JD.com retreated 3 per cent.
China’s slowing economic growth has weighed on private business, and executives have faced intensified scrutiny over alleged corruption and a spate of detentions by local authorities.
Haitun’s Li said the uncertainty had led many of China’s leading entrepreneurs to spend most of their time abroad. The meeting signalled that “their personal safety is not in question in China”, he said.
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