(Reuters) -Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to chair a symposium to boost private sector sentiment next week that will be attended by the country’s business leaders including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, three people with knowledge of the meeting said.
Xi rarely chairs symposiums about the private sector and the event underscores the numerous challenges currently facing China Inc, from the escalation in tensions with the United States under President Donald Trump to sputtering growth for the domestic economy.
Many of the entrepreneurs will be from the tech sector and Xi is expected to encourage them to expand their businesses domestically and internationally amidst an intensifying Sino-U.S. technology war, two sources said.
The symposium is likely to take place on Monday, said three sources.
Pony Ma, the CEO of tech giant Tencent, is slated to be there, two sources said. Lei Jun, the chief executive of smartphone and electric vehicle maker Xiaomi as well as Wang Xingxing, the founder of robotics company Yushu Technology, are likely to attend, said one source.
An executive from Huawei Technologies is also expected to participate, according to two sources.
Reuters spoke to five people with knowledge of the symposium for this article, all of whom declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
The State Council Information Office, which handles media queries on behalf of the state leaders, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi, Huawei and Yushu did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Xi first chaired a high-profile symposium for the private sector in late 2018, six years after he came to power. At the time, he pledged his support for private companies, promising tax cuts and a level playing field, while reaffirming that private enterprises would have access to financial backing.
Attendance by Jack Ma at the planned symposium has the potential to boost business confidence.
The once high-profile entrepreneur largely withdrew from public life after the IPO of his fintech company Ant was halted by authorities in 2020 – a move triggered by a speech he gave that year criticising China’s regulatory system.
His business empire and the wider technology industry were then targeted by a regulatory crackdown, with his time out of the limelight symbolising a reversal of fortunes for China’s private sector.
In recent years, Xi has emphasised China’s need to achieve “common prosperity”, saying that private companies should be “rich and loving” as well as “patriotic” and share the fruits of their growth with employees more equitably.
His remarks have been taken as discouraging excesses in a number of industries and acting as brakes on riskier investments.
(Reporting by Reuters staff; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Edwina Gibbs)
