Chinese leader meets corporate executives during economic downturns, such as slowing down and high youth unemployment. Chinese President Xi Jinping has met with senior corporate leaders, such as Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, at a business forum in Beijing, state media said.
Since taking office over a decade ago, Xi has repeatedly tried to strengthen the position of state firms in the world’s second-largest economy and cautioned against the “disorderly” growth of the private sector.
But accounts last week indicated he was set to receive business leaders as he grapples with a slowing economy plagued by a real-estate crisis, chronically low consumption, and high youth unemployment. State television CCTV reported on Monday that the meeting occurred at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, with a video capturing Ma standing and clapping as Xi entered an opulent room.
CCTV did not initially provide information on the content of the meeting. Ma’s attendance suggests the billionaire tycoon’s possible public rehabilitation after years in the shadows after a run-in with regulators. The former English teacher founded tech behemoth Alibaba in 1999 and built it into one of China’s most recognisable and dominant private companies.
He once cultivated an outspoken public persona but reined in his pronouncements towards the end of the last decade as Xi oversaw a sweeping crackdown on the country’s once-freewheeling technology and internet platforms.
In 2020, regulators pulled the plug on Alibaba affiliate Ant Group’s blockbuster IPO at the eleventh hour – specifically after Ma gave a speech disparaging regulators. Ma is no longer an Alibaba executive but is thought to still hold a large stake in the company, even though he has spent the last few years concentrating on philanthropy and rural education.
Alibaba, set to release its most recent quarterly earnings report this week, has watched its stock rise over 40 per cent year-to-date. Other attendees at Monday’s gathering were Ren Zhengfei, the founder of tech giant Huawei, and Wang Chuanfu, founder of electric car giant BYD.
CCTV aired excerpts of Xi, Ren and Wang speaking at the meeting but did not initially release audio or text accounts of their remarks.
