China has invited prominent entrepreneurs including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA, 9988.HK) co-founder Jack Ma to meet the nation’s top leaders, people familiar with the matter said, a potentially momentous show of support for the private sector after years of turmoil.
The meeting may happen as soon as next week and include DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, the people said. While further details are sparse, the people said President Xi Jinping is expected to attend. Alibaba shares gained as much as 5.7% in Hong Kong.
The Chinese leader’s schedule is closely guarded and often remains unclear until the last minute. But a meeting involving Xi and Ma has the potential to send a powerful signal that China’s Communist Party is adopting a more supportive stance toward private-sector companies that fuel most of the country’s economic growth.
The outspoken entrepreneur became one of the most high-profile casualties of Xi’s crackdown on the private sector in 2020, when authorities shocked the world by scuttling the blockbuster initial public offering of Alibaba affiliate Ant Group Co.
Ma largely disappeared from public view as the Ant episode kicked off a yearslong campaign to tighten state control over the world’s second-largest economy, rein in the nation’s billionaire class and shift resources toward Xi priorities including national security and technological self-sufficiency.
The State Council Information Office didn’t respond to a fax seeking comment on the meeting, first reported by Reuters. Deepseek and Alibaba representatives also didn’t respond.
Authorities have taken a less combative approach more recently as China’s economy slowed and companies like Alibaba aligned themselves with Xi’s push for leadership in areas like artificial intelligence.
Liang, whose low-cost chatbot has vaulted China near the top of the race for AI supremacy, attended a closed-door business symposium hosted by Chinese Premier Li Qiang last month. Ma, who has gradually become more visible in recent years, gave a speech on topics including AI to Ant employees in December.
Optimism over AI’s potential has sparked a blistering rally in China’s stock market over the past month, turning the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (^HSCE) into the world’s best-performer. Speculation on social media about a potential meeting between Chinese authorities and companies including Alibaba has added to the positive sentiment in recent days, driving shares of the tech giant to their highest level since July 2022.
Still, it remains unclear to what extent authorities plan to shift their stance toward the private sector. A 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 Donald Trump.
No business figure encapsulates the ups and downs of China’s private sector better than Ma, the former English school-teacher who created Alibaba from his lakeside apartment in 1999. Alibaba vanquished foreign rivals including eBay Inc. (EBAY) before growing into China’s largest corporation, propelling Ma’s reputation as a giant of private industry and tech innovation.
But in 2020, a now-infamous public tirade against the state financial sector and regulators rankled top officials in Beijing. They stunned Wall Street by shutting down Ant’s IPO days later — at the time, the world’s largest market debut —- before launching an assault against the rest of his empire.
Ma’s gradual emergence in recent years has included occasional visits to the Alibaba campus, including one this week, as well as posts on the company’s internal employee forum.
A meeting with Xi would have the potential to supercharge a reversal of fortunes for Alibaba, which alienated investors in 2023 by unveiling a grand plan to split itself into several independent sector leaders only to scuttle that blueprint and replace key executives months later.
In 2024, Joe Tsai and Eddie Wu — two of Ma’s earliest lieutenants — decided to bet big on AI. Alibaba’s progress in that field helped the company gain more than $90 billion of market value this year.
Source: finance.yahoo.com/
