The Chinese president promised the heads and founders of China's largest companies to remove all obstacles “to fair participation in market competition.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday held a meeting with Alibaba chief Jack Ma and other leading entrepreneurs, assuring them of taking measures to improve the country's business environment.
The country’s leader drew many of the biggest names in Chinese business over the past decade, representing industries from chipmaking and electric vehicles to AI. The summit demonstrated Beijing’s softer stance toward the companies that fuel most of economy, just as Washington ramps up a potentially debilitating campaign of global tariffs.
In addition to Alibaba's Jack Ma, the meeting was attended by Meituan co-founder Wang Xing, Xiaomi Corp. chief Lei Jun, Wang Xingxing of robotics startup Unitree, DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng and Huawei Technologies Co. founder Ren Zhengfei — considered key figures in China’s ambition to reduce its reliance on US technology.
China’s leader urged the assembled founders and CEOs to maintain their competitive spirit and have confidence in the country’s future, emphasizing that the challenges they faced were “temporary.” He promised to abolish unreasonable fees or fines against private firms and level the competitive playing field — a common complaint of entrepreneurs in a state-dominated system. On Monday, China’s parliament said it would review laws centered on promoting the private economy.
“It is necessary to resolutely remove all kinds of obstacles to the equal use of production factors and fair participation in market competition,”
Xi told the entrepreneurs, according to Xinhua. Beijing should “continue to promote the fair opening of the competitive field of infrastructure to all kinds of business entities, and continue to make great efforts to solve the problem of difficult and expensive financing for private enterprises,” Xi said.
Tencent Holdings Ltd. founder Pony Ma — whose WeChat pioneered the “super app” concept that has since been lauded by Elon Musk — also attended, CCTV reported. So too did BYD Co.’s Wang Chuanfu and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd.’s Robin Zeng, driving home China’s rapid ascent in EVs.
"It's a tacit acknowledgement that the Chinese government needs private-sector firms for its tech rivalry with the United States,"
Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Dragonomics in Hong Kong, told Reuters, commenting on Xi Jinping's meeting with entrepreneurs. He said the Chinese government "has no choice but to support them if it wants to compete with the United States."
Jack Ma was the highest-profile casualty of Xi’s crackdown on the internet and private sector in 2020, when authorities scuttled the blockbuster initial public offering of Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group Co. That episode kicked off a yearslong campaign to tighten state control over the economy, rein in the nation’s billionaire class and shift resources toward Xi’s priorities including national security and technological self-sufficiency. Once one of China’s most outspoken entrepreneurs, Ma largely disappeared from public view after the crackdown.
But authorities have taken a less combative approach more recently as China’s economy slowed and companies aligned themselves with Xi’s push for leadership in areas like artificial intelligence.
It remains unclear to what extent authorities plan to shift their stance toward the private sector. A strong show of support by Xi would almost certainly add fuel to the stock-market rally and revive animal spirits among entrepreneurs, but much would depend on whether authorities follow through with more concrete policy actions.
Few China watchers expect the government to revert to its pre-2020 stance, even as it seeks to shore up the economy for a potential trade war with the US under President Donald Trump.
