BEIJING- Chinese President Xi Jinping held a rare meeting on Monday with some of the biggest names in China’s technology sector, including Alibaba founder Jack Ma, in what sources previously billed as an effort to boost private-business sentiment.
The meeting highlights a turnaround in Beijing’s approach to its tech giants after a regulatory clampdown a few years ago, as well as more recent concerns about a slowdown in economic growth and efforts by the US to stunt its technological development.
Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek, a startup that is threatening to upset the technology world order with its AI models, also attended, two sources familiar with the meeting said.
Liang was not pictured in CCTV’s video, and DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Other private business leaders who attended the symposium included Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, Xiaomi’s Lei Jun, BYD’s Wang Chuanfu, Unitree’s Wang Xingxing, and CATL’s Robin Zeng, a video published by CCTV showed.
The meeting was also attended by Meituan’s Wang Xing, China Feihe’s Leng Youbin and Will Semiconductor founder Yu Renrong, the video showed.
Tencent’s Pony Ma was there too, a source familiar with the matter said, declining to be named as the meeting details were not public. Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Xi delivered a speech after listening to representatives of private companies, official news agency Xinhua said. The report did not provide any details about the symposium, held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources, Xi planned to chair a symposium to boost private sector sentiment on Monday that would be attended by the country’s business leaders, including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma.
The symposium would be aimed at boosting private-sector sentiment, and Xi was expected to encourage company chiefs to expand their businesses domestically and internationally amid an intensifying China-US technology war, the sources had said.
Investors on Monday were scouring pictures and footage of the meeting to spot top bosses and trading accordingly, with Baidu shares down more than 8 percent – the largest loser on the Hang Seng index – after no top executive was spotted.
Founders of Baidu and Bytedance were among the prominent private business leaders in China who did not attend the meeting, two sources familiar with the matter. Neither company immediately responded to requests for comment.
The presence of top executives and companies at these high-profile events are typically seen by foreign investors as a sign of the businesses or individuals that are favored by the government.
The meeting took place against the backdrop of US tariffs threatening to pile more pressure on the world’s second-largest economy, which has been reeling from weak domestic consumption and a destabilizing debt crisis in the property sector.
The private business sector contributes more than 50 percent to China’s tax revenue, more than 60 percent of its economic output, 70 percent of tech innovation and 80 percent of urban employment, according to official estimates.
The meeting also comes as global excitement over DeepSeek’s AI platform has spilled over into investor speculation about its potential positive effects on China’s broader tech sector, and has triggered calls for an upward repricing of Chinese assets.
