BEIJING: President Xi Jinping held a rare meeting on Monday (Feb 17) with some of the biggest names in China’s technology sector, such as Alibaba founder Jack Ma, urging them to “show their talent” and be confident in the power of China’s model and market.
The tightly choreographed pro-business rally, a turnaround in Beijing’s approach to its tech giants from a regulatory clampdown four years ago, reflected policymakers’ concern about a slowdown in growth and efforts by the United States to limit China’s technological development, analysts said.
Xi’s move to gather business leaders, including those behind breakout successes despite US pressure in recent months, underscores the importance of private-sector innovation for China to gain ground in technology, they said.
“It’s a tacit acknowledgement that the Chinese government needs private-sector firms for its tech rivalry with the United States,” said Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Dragonomics in Hong Kong.
“The government has no choice but to support them if it wants to compete with the United States.”
The private sector in China, which competes with state-owned companies, contributes more than half of tax revenue, more than 60 per cent of economic output and 70 per cent of tech innovation, official estimates show.
US tariffs threaten more pressure on the world’s second-largest economy, which has been reeling from weak domestic consumption and a destabilising debt crisis in the property sector.
Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek, a startup that threatens to upset American AI ventures with its lower-cost AI model, attended, two sources familiar with the meeting said.
Xi called the meeting in the ceremonial Great Hall of the People, the same setting he used in 2018 for a similar meeting during the trade war at the time of the first administration of US President Donald Trump.
Xi’s remarks, summarised hours later by state media, stressed continuity in China’s economic development strategy. But he also said its private business had “broad prospects and great promise” to create wealth and opportunity.
China’s governance and the scale of its market give it an inherent advantage in developing new industries, Xi said.
“It is the right time for the majority of private business and entrepreneurs to show their talent,” he was quoted as saying in remarks state media called an “important speech”.
The first state media images showed Xi speaking to assembled executives pictured from behind and aligned in rows before him. The images prompted a scramble by investors to see who was in or out among top business leaders.
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and BYD’s Wang Chuanfu sat directly in front of Xi, images showed, seats of honour for national champions in electric vehicles and chip development.
Shares of Baidu dropped more than 8 per cent, making it the largest loser on the Hang Seng index, after no top executive was spotted. Founders of Baidu and ByteDance were among those who did not attend, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Neither company’s officials immediately responded to requests for comment.
On Friday, Reuters reported, citing sources, that Xi planned to chair the business meeting.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-xi-jinping-private-business-leaders-beijing-economy-4942541
