Chinese President Xi Jinping met some of the country’s top entrepreneurs on Monday as Beijing looks to reinvigorate private business and pep up the economy.
Xi gave an “important speech” at the forum in the Chinese capital after listening to comments from the business community, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency.
Xinhua published a photo showing Lei Jun, founder of tech group Xiaomi, Robin Zeng, founder and chair of leading battery maker CATL, and Wang Xing, founder of food delivery giant Meituan, among the business leaders at the event.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Tencent chair Pony Ma were widely expected to also be in attendance.
Beijing has been working to improve the business environment and boost economic growth. China previously waged a years-long campaign to rein in the influence of big tech companies, which contributed to slumping confidence among business leaders.
Ma became the figurehead of Beijing’s tech crackdown, and he has largely been absent from public view following the dramatic intervention by Beijing in late 2020 to cancel the Ant Financial initial public offering. His inclusion in Monday’s meeting would be a symbolic measure from Beijing to affirm a more positive bent on the private sector.
China’s sluggish economy has weighed on many private businesses, with executives facing intensified scrutiny over allegations of corruption and a spate of detentions by local authorities.
The emergence of pioneering artificial intelligence models from start-up DeepSeek has helped to renew outside interest in Chinese tech, and ignited a bull market in the main benchmark for Chinese technology stocks.
Xi has used prior forums with business leaders to pledge tax cuts and a level playing field with state enterprises.