On Monday, Xi Jinping presided over a highly publicized meeting with CEOs from China’s tech giants. In the eyes of many observers, the meeting served as a signal that, after years of relentless regulatory crackdowns on the private sector, the Chinese government is now hoping for their assistance in boosting the country’s lagging economy and supporting China’s bid for tech dominance, particularly in the fields of chip manufacturing and AI. (The People’s Daily noted on Thursday that over 92 percent of China’s national high-tech enterprises are private, making them an important part of Xi’s economic and technological goals.) Raffaele Huang from The Wall Street Journal outlined the stakes and significance of the meeting:
It was both a demonstration of fealty by the corporate chiefs to China’s most powerful leader in decades, and an acknowledgment by Xi that he needed private entrepreneurs to keep the economy humming—including those who battled state-owned enterprises to build their own businesses.
According to an official account of the meeting, Xi pledged that private companies would be protected when competing in the market in the same way as state enterprises. He also told companies to follow Beijing’s policies to overcome difficulties, which he didn’t detail.
[…] Xi’s decision to summon business leaders again [after a similar meeting in 2018], with a new trade war brewing, was a “strong gesture to tell the market and hesitant local officials that these are our champions that we need to unwaveringly support in light of all the risks,” said Feng Chucheng, founding partner of Beijing advisory firm Hutong Research.
“With many of these entrepreneurs having significant stakes in the U.S., Beijing needs a united front also to prevent major capital flight,” Feng said. [Source]
Among the notable attendees at Monday’s meeting was Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba who disappeared from the public eye for several years after his criticism of regulators in October 2020 led to a swift crackdown, involving fines and restructurings of his and other major tech companies. (The second state-media readout of the meeting, after the first was deleted, contained only the names of a few attendees, but not Ma.) The spectacle of so many of China’s former tech titans “bending the knee” to Xi attracted a great deal of comment on Chinese social media platforms. As one Weibo user quipped: “They come when they are called, and leave when they are commanded. After enduring so many slaps in the face, all they can do now is nurse their wounds and accept whatever consolation prizes they’re offered." The Economist wrote that Jack Ma being summoned back from the wilderness could be seen as “a victory lap for Mr Xi” and “a confirmation that China’s once-mighty entrepreneurs have fallen into line.” However, as Lizzi C. Lee argued at Foreign Policy, the meeting also sought to repair some of the damage done to the private sector by arbitrary or overzealous government regulators:
In 2024 alone, executives from more than 80 listed companies were detained, often by authorities from regions unrelated to their businesses—a practice dubbed “long-range fishing” by Chinese media. This uncertainty has cast a shadow over economic recovery, diverting business leaders from innovation and growth to self-preservation.
Recognizing the risks, Premier Li Qiang has called for stronger oversight, signaling an effort to curb these detentions and reassure the private sector. However, with enforcement still opaque and the broader regulatory environment in flux, concerns over arbitrary crackdowns remain deeply embedded in China’s business landscape.
By convening China’s top entrepreneurs, Beijing sought to not only reassure the private sector but also draw a line under years of unpredictable crackdowns, signaling that the private sector remains indispensable.
This marks a tactical shift. Beijing still dictates the terms, but it now recognizes that a private sector paralyzed by fear serves no one. The era of unchecked ambition for China’s business leaders may be over, but so too, perhaps, is the era of indiscriminate punishment for those aligned with state priorities. [Source]
The meeting buoyed Chinese stocks and raised hopes of a major economic shift, as Bloomberg News noted. Angela Huyue Zhang, a law professor at the University of Southern California, told CNN, “With the domestic economy slowing and geopolitical pressures escalating, the government is making it clear that it values and relies on the private sector to drive innovation and stimulate growth.” The choreography of the meeting also reflected Xi’s priorities for the future trajectory of Chinese investment. Huawei’s CEO Ren Zhengfei was given the first speaking opportunity after Xi, and those seated closest to Xi included Liu Yonghao, the chairman of agricultural giant New Hope, which “suggested deprioritization of the platform economy and an emphasis on hardware, manufacturing, solar power, and agricultural technology,” according to FP’s Lizzi C. Lee and James Palmer. Eduardo Baptista and Brenda Goh at Reuters shared views from other analysts about the significance of the guest list and seating arrangements:
"The line-up of entrepreneurs suggests that Xi’s priority for the private sector is for it to support his goals of achieving technological self-reliance and supply-chain security," said Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.
[…] "The new line-up of entrepreneurs that Xi met with represent the cutting-edge technology that Beijing wants to see succeed to drive new economic growth," said Paul Triolo, partner and technology policy lead for DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group.
[…] The seating of executives at such key meetings is seen as illustrating companies’ standing. Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei and BYD’s Wang Chuanfu sat opposite Xi.
Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Tencent’s Pony Ma, among the biggest targets of Beijing’s previous private sector crackdown, were also seated in the front row. Wang Xing, founder of China’s largest delivery platform, Meituan, sat in the second row. [Source]
The meeting also took place against a backdrop of intensifying U.S.-China tech competition and a potential trade war. Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Dragonomics, said that the meeting is “a tacit acknowledgement that the Chinese government needs private-sector firms for its tech rivalry with the United States." He added, “The government has no choice but to support them if it wants to compete with the United States.” Drawing parallels, Su Yue, principal economist for China with the Economist Intelligence Unit, noted, “Interestingly, during Trump’s [second] inauguration, many tech industry leaders were also present,” including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Tesla’s Elon Musk. CCTV footage of Xi’s meeting this week showed the Chinese leader warmly shaking hands with DeepSeek founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng, whose company’s AI chatbot was hailed as a major success for China in its competition with the U.S. for AI dominance.
