Xi Jinping meets top Chinese business leaders

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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.

Xi gave an “important speech” at the forum in the Chinese capital after hearing comments from the business community, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Ma was joined by Robin Zeng, founder and chair of leading battery maker CATL and Meituan boss Wang Xing at the high-profile meeting, where Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and Xiaomi chief Lei Jun addressed top officials, state media said.

Tencent chief Pony Ma and Wang Chuanfu, chair of electric vehicle maker BYD, and Wang Xingxing, founder of robotics group Unitree, were also present.

Beijing has been working to improve the business environment in China and strengthen economic growth after waging a years-long campaign to rein in the influence of big tech companies that damped business confidence.

Ma was the most prominent victim of Beijing’s tech crackdown, and has largely been absent from public view following regulators’ dramatic intervention in late 2020 to cancel the planned record initial public offering for Ant Financial Group.

His presence at Monday’s meeting was a symbolic measure from Beijing to affirm a more positive bent on the private sector, analysts said.

“I think 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.

China’s slowing economic growth has weighed on private business, while executives have faced intensified scrutiny over alleged corruption and a spate of detentions by local authorities.

In the past, Xi has used meetings with business leaders to promise tax cuts and a level playing field with state enterprises.

The emergence of pioneering artificial intelligence models from start-up DeepSeek has helped renew interest in Chinese technology and ignited a bull market in the main benchmark for the country’s tech stocks.

The Hang Seng Tech index, a benchmark of the 30 top tech companies listed in Hong Kong, is up 24 per cent since the start of the year as investors respond to DeepSeek’s breakthrough and Beijing’s positive messaging on the tech sector.