Chinese President Xi Jinping makes a toast at the Great Hall of the People in September 2023 in this file photo.
Andy Wong-Pool/Getty Images
President Xi Jinping met some of China’s most prominent tycoons, sending what analysts say is the strongest signal of support in years to companies like web giants Alibaba and Tencent.
Xi met them at a symposium for private sector enterprises on Monday held at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, reported the official Xinhua News Agency, and delivered a speech after listening to the entrepreneurs.
Xi pledged “unwavering support” to private enterprises, including financing support and tax relief, and in creating a more fair competitive environment. “Our private economy will only be stronger, and it can’t be weakened,” he said according to Xinhua. “And it must perform on a bigger stage.”
Pony Ma, cofounder of gaming and social media giant Tencent and the country’s second-richest man with a fortune of $52.1 billion, was at the event, a person with knowledge of the matter told Forbes Asia. Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma, BYD cofounder Wang Chuanfu, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun as well as Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei could be seen in footage from state broadcaster CCTV. Reuters first reported the meeting would take place last week.
“Private enterprises now play an extremely important role in stabilizing the economy, as China still faces high growth pressure and uncertainties in 2025,” Shen Meng, managing director of Beijing-based boutique investment bank Chanson & Co., says by WeChat. “Hosting the highest level meeting with private sector entrepreneurs further sends positive signals to their development. ”
The last time Xi held such a meeting was in 2018, at the onset of a U.S.-China trade war during the first Donald Trump administration, which brought significant risks to the country’s economy, Feng Chucheng, founding partner of Shanghai-based research firm Hutong Research, says by WeChat. Now, China is facing off with the U.S. not just on trade but advanced technologies including AI and semiconductors, as the world’s two largest economies jockey for supremacy in these areas.
The U.S. has imposed sweeping controls on selling AI- and chip-related technologies to China, not entirely successfully. DeepSeek, whose founder Liang Wenfeng was also reportedly among the tech entrepreneurs meeting Xi on Monday, released in January a highly cost-effective AI model that stunned Silicon Valley. It subsequently wiped off about $1 trillion from the market caps of tech leaders including Nvidia as investors started to question whether high spending in AI-related chips is necessary.
E-commerce behemoth Alibaba announced in January that its latest Qwen AI model could be better than DeepSeek and some OpenAI models in certain areas of performance. Tencent says it is beta testing the integration of DeepSeek’s model in its WeChat messaging app in China, fueling hopes this would create an AI super app with enhanced search and recommendation functions. Tencent’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose as much as 6.5% on that news in Monday’s trading.
“The private sector will serve as the foundation of future growth,” Hutong Research’s Feng says. He adds that one of the Monday meeting’s goals was to “double down on driving consumption and innovation” to support economic recovery.
Signals of support for the private sector from the top amounts to a dramatic reversal of attitude. After Jack Ma’s 2020 criticism of China’s financial regulatory system, Beijing effective halted an initial public offering of fintech giant Ant Group, which Ma cofounded after Alibaba. Officials conducted a sweeping crackdown on the technology sector, fining companies billions of dollars for monopolistic practices and even halting the issuance of gaming licenses as they blamed online games for causing addiction among youth.
Alibaba cofounder Ma travelled overseas for years, before gradually appearing in public view starting from 2024. The company confirmed last week that it is partnering with Apple to introduce AI services for iPhone users in China, which analysts say might help Alibaba attract more users for its AI models down the road.
