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Chinese President Xi Jinping held a meeting with some of the top entrepreneurs in the country, including Alibaba’s Jack Ma on Monday, as Beijing aims to boost private businesses and drive economic growth.
Ma, who was significantly impacted by Beijing’s tech crackdown in recent years, made a public appearance at the forum where Xi delivered an “important speech,” according to state broadcaster CCTV. This gesture symbolized Beijing’s more positive approach towards the private sector, analysts noted.
“The purpose of the meeting is to convey to the private sector, ‘We are here to support you, we need your contribution to enhance tech innovation and consumption,'” explained Zhang Xiaoyan, a finance professor at Tsinghua University.
Beijing has been actively working to enhance the business environment in China and stimulate economic growth after implementing strict regulations on big tech companies that affected business sentiment.
Other notable tech executives present at the meeting included Robin Zeng from CATL, Wang Xing from Meituan, Ren Zhengfei from Huawei, Lei Jun from Xiaomi, Pony Ma from Tencent, Wang Chuanfu from BYD, and Wang Xingxing from Unitree.
China’s recent economic slowdown has impacted private businesses, with executives facing increased scrutiny and detentions by local authorities. Xi has previously assured tax cuts and fair competition with state-run enterprises during meetings with business leaders.
The introduction of innovative AI models by DeepSeek has sparked renewed interest in Chinese technology and triggered a bull market in the country’s tech stocks. The Hang Seng Tech index, comprising the top 30 tech companies in Hong Kong, has risen by 24% since the beginning of the year in response to DeepSeek’s breakthrough and Beijing’s positive stance on the tech industry.