The meeting included many well-known business leaders besides Jack Ma. Among them were Ren Zhengfei from Huawei, Wang Chuanfu from BYD, Zeng Yuqun from CATL, Pony Ma from Tencent, Wang Xing from Meituan, Lei Jun from Xiaomi, and Liang Wenfeng from DeepSeek, as shown in a video report by CCTV, China's main TV channel.
According to Xinhua, China's official news agency, President Xi told these business leaders that their companies had "great potential and a bright future." He assured them that the current economic challenges would not last long and promised to make business competition more fair for everyone.
"This is the best time for private companies and business leaders to grow and succeed," Xi said during the meeting at the Great Hall of the People. He had held a similar meeting with private business leaders in the same place in 2018.
This meeting happened shortly after Chinese company DeepSeek's new AI technology caused excitement in global markets. Their AI system works as well as American companies' systems but costs much less. This success has brought new hope to China's technology sector, which is still recovering from three years of strict government control.
The government's strict approach began in late 2020 when Jack Ma openly criticized Chinese financial regulators and banks in a public speech. His comments led to the biggest government control of private companies in China's business history. This affected many big technology companies like Tencent, Didi, and Meituan. Since then, Ma, who used to speak openly in public, has rarely been seen.
His presence at this important meeting with President Xi suggests that the government might be ending its strict control, according to Angela Huyue Zhang, a law professor at the University of Southern California who has written about China's technology regulations.
"With China's economy slowing down and international pressures increasing, the government is showing that it values private companies and needs them to create new ideas and help the economy grow," she told CNN.
She added that the timing of this meeting is important as it shows "new efforts to help private companies, especially in technology, and to make business leaders feel confident again."
On Friday, the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, which measures how well important Chinese companies are doing in the stock market, reached its highest point since early 2022. This happened after news about the upcoming meeting was first shared by Reuters. However, by Monday, it had dropped slightly by about 1%.
China’s president Xi Jinping (Photo: ft.com)
A powerful group
China, the world's second-biggest economy, is facing difficulties as other countries, especially the United States, become less friendly in trade relations. Even though China stopped its strict COVID-19 rules at the end of 2022, the economy hasn't gotten better as expected. Problems with the housing market and people's lack of confidence in spending money have made things harder.
The government has been trying many times to encourage private businesses, which have been worried about China's increasing control over the economy. These private companies are very important - they provide more than 60% of China's total economic output and give jobs to over 80% of workers, even though state-owned companies are bigger.
The meeting between Xi and business leaders, including former Alibaba leader Jack Ma, "shows a big change" in how China treats private businesses, according to Fred Hu, who leads the investment company Primavera Capital.
"Private businesses have always been the most important part of China's economy and helped it grow the most. But in recent years, they've had a hard time because of unclear rules and policies. This has hurt China's economy badly, and even worse, many young people can't find jobs," he explained.
China's strict control of private companies had caused big problems, making many powerful Chinese companies lose more than $1 trillion in value. This made people worry about new ideas and growth in business.
In mid-2021, the government made strict rules for private education companies and food delivery services. Even though these controls seemed to stop more than a year ago, some business leaders were still worried and didn't grow their businesses as confidently as before.
This story includes new information and background details.
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Tags: #ChineseBusinessRevival #TechLeadersInChina #BusinessDialogue #BusinessInChina
Source: CNN Mon February 17, 2025 / https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/02/17/tech/china-jack-ma-alibaba-meeting-hnk-intl
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