STORY: President Xi Jinping held a rare meeting with some of the biggest names in China’s tech sector Monday (Feb 17) – marking a turnaround in Beijing’s approach to its tech giants after a regulatory clampdown four years ago.
The likes of Alibaba founder Jack Ma and DeepSeek’s Liang Wenfeng were present at the highly choreographed event.
Analysts said it was a show of support to rally private companies.
The first images from Chinese state media showed Xi speaking to executives aligned in rows before him.
Investors raced to see who was in and out among top business leaders.
Images showed bosses from Huawei and electric vehicle giant BYD sat directly in front of Xi.
Leaders from Chinese giants including Xiaomi, Meituan and Tencent were also reportedly present.
Shares of Baidu dropped more than 8% after no top executive was spotted.
Two sources said the founders of Baidu and ByteDance were among those who did not attend.
Jack Ma’s attendance was notable.
The once high-profile entrepreneur largely withdrew from public life after the IPO of his fintech company Ant was stopped by authorities five years ago.
That move was triggered by a speech he gave the same year criticizing China’s regulatory system.
The official Xinhua news agency said Xi delivered a speech after listening to executives, but gave no details of his remarks.
Analysts said Xi’s move to gather business leaders underscores the new importance of private-sector innovation for China to gain ground in technology.
U.S. tariffs have recently threatened more pressure on the world’s second-largest economy.
The country has struggled with weak domestic consumption and a debt crisis in the property sector.
Neither company’s officials immediately responded to requests for comment.
