Beijing (Reuters)-China President Xi Jinping held a rare meeting with some of China’s biggest technology sector names, such as Alibaba founder Jack Ma, asking them to “show their talent” and trust in Chinese model and market power.
The event, a turnaround in Beijing’s approach to its technology giants after regulatory repression four years ago, reflects the authorities’ concern with the slowdown in growth and efforts of the United States to limit China’s technological development, analysts according to analysts. .
XI’s initiative to bring together business leaders emphasize the importance of private sector innovation to get China land in technology, analysts said.
“It is an tacit recognition that the Chinese government needs private companies for its rivalry with the United States in technology,” said Christopher Beddor, deputy director of China’s China Dragonomics China.
“The government has no choice but to support them if it wants to compete with the United States.”
China’s private sector, which is up to state -owned companies, contributes more than half of tax revenue, more than 60% of economic production and 70% of technological innovation, according to official estimates.
US tariffs threaten to increase pressure on the world’s second largest economy, which has been suffering from the weakness of domestic consumption and a debt crisis in the real estate sector.
Continues after advertising
Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek, a startup that threatens to disturb US AI ventures with its low cost model, attended two sources familiar with the meeting.
XI comments, summarized hours later by state media, emphasized the continuity of China’s economic development strategy. But he also said that his private companies have “broad perspectives and great promise” of creating wealth and opportunities.
China’s governance and its market scale give the country an inherent advantage in the development of new sectors, said XI.
Continues after advertising
“It’s the right time for most private companies and entrepreneurs to show their talent,” he said in comments that the state media called “important speech.”
The first images of the state media showed Xi speaking to gathered executives, photographed from behind and aligned in queues before him. The images caused a race of investors to see who was inside or out among the main business leaders.
The images showed that Ren Zhengfei, founder of Huawei, and BYD’s Wang Chuanfu, sat directly in front of Xi, honor seats for national champions in electric vehicles and chip development.
