XI Jinping, the top leader of China, met on Monday with a group of business leaders, including the entrepreneur Jack Ma, who was set aside by the government four years ago, in a show of support for private companies at an economic precarious time.
The heads of the electronics companies Huawei and Xiaomi, the battery maker Catl and the electric vehicle giant BYD belonged to the managers who applauded and made notes while Mr XI provided the meeting, according to a video published by State Media. The reports have not described the nature of the discussions whether everyone who was present.
It was the first meeting between Mr XI and managers, because President Trump focused on China in a series of rates that he said they were aimed at reducing the enormous American trade deficit with the country.
Under investors, there were reports that the meeting could take place, led to optimism that Beijing became serious about strengthening the private sector, which has adopted a rear seat, since Mr. Xi has placed more emphasis on companies in the state.
Stocks in Hong Kong, where many large Chinese companies act, have risen in recent weeks on optimism about private companies such as Deepseek, a Chinese start-up that said it had built up a powerful artificial intelligence program with much less computer chips than any Silicon Valley Giant in The field. According to the Chinese media, Liang Wenfeng, the founder of Deepseek, was at the meeting at the meeting.
Fred Hu, founder of the Primavera Capital investment firm in Hong Kong, called the meeting a symbolic 'course correction'.
“In recent years, the private sector has been hit by policy, politics and regulations,” said Mr. Hu.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong initially gathered more than 1 percent on Monday, but it gave up that win and acted lower in the afternoon.
Chinese social media bursting with speculation about who had been at the meeting. The symposium soon became one of the top five topics of discussion about Weibo, one of the most popular online platforms in China.
For many, the most important question for the meeting was whether Mr. Ma, the founder of the Alibaba Group, would be present.
It was the first time that Mr Ma was seen in public with Mr. Xi since Beijing struck the first public offer of his antgroup in 2020, after he publicly criticized Chinese regulators for suffocating innovation. The step of supervisors to stop what the largest IPO in the world was was an important development in a multi -year government performance against Chinese entrepreneurs. Since then, Mr. has largely kept it out of the public eye.
Mr. Hu said that the presence of Mr Ma sent a message during the meeting “that successful private entrepreneurs are respected instead of punished.”
Li you contributed research.
