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On Monday, Beijing hopes to revitalize private businesses and drive stronger economic growth, with Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting with some of the country’s top entrepreneurs, including Alibaba’s Jack May.
MA is the most prominent victim of Beijing’s technological crackdown in recent years, with largely no public opinion following dramatic interventions from regulators in late 2020 to cancel the planned IPO of Ant Financial Group.
Analysts said his presence at the forum on Monday, where Xi Jinping delivered a “important speech”.
“The purpose of the meeting is to tell [the private sector,] “We want to support you, and we need you to improve your technological innovation and consumption,” said Zhang Chuan, a finance professor at Tsinghua University.
She added that the government wants to “inject confidence” into Chinese companies.
Beijing has been working to improve China’s business environment and strengthen economic growth, which has launched a year of activity to curb the influence of large tech companies that have curbed business confidence.
Other notable tech executives included leading battery maker Catl and Robin Zeng, founder and chairman of Meituan Boss Wang Xing, at the meeting Monday. State media broadcasts show Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and Xiaomi head Lei Jun addressed senior officials.
Tencent Chief Pony Ma and Wang Chuanfu, chairman of electric vehicle maker Byd, and Wang Xingxing, founder of Robotics Group Unitree, were also present.
China’s slowdown in economic growth has had an impact on private businesses, while executives face scrutiny on alleged corruption and a series of detainees by local authorities.
In the past, Xi Jinping has committed to meetings with business leaders to reduce taxes and level the playing field with state businesses.
The emergence of the pioneering AI model that launched DeepSeek helped re-energize interest in Chinese technology and ignited a bull market among the country’s major benchmarks for technology stocks.
The Hang Seng Tech index, the benchmark for 30 top technology companies listed in Hong Kong, has seen 24% rise in investors’ response to DeepSeek’s breakthrough and Beijing’s positive news to the technology sector since the beginning of the year.
