Jack Ma and Other Chinese Business Leaders Meet With Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, met on Monday with a group of corporate chieftains, including the entrepreneur Jack Ma, who was sidelined by the government four years ago, in a show of support for private business at an economically precarious time.

The heads of the electronics companies Huawei and Xiaomi, the battery maker CATL and the electric vehicle giant BYD were among the business leaders who applauded and took notes as Mr. Xi presided over the meeting, according to a video published by state media. The reports did not describe the nature of the discussions or list everyone who attended.

It was the first gathering between Mr. Xi and corporate leaders since President Trump targeted China in a series of tariffs, which he said were aimed at reducing the enormous American trade deficit with the country.

Among investors, reports that the meeting might take place had sparked optimism that Beijing was getting serious about bolstering the private sector, which has taken a back seat as Mr. Xi has put greater emphasis on state-owned enterprises.

Stocks in Hong Kong, where many major Chinese companies trade, have risen in recent weeks on optimism about private companies like DeepSeek, a Chinese start-up that said it had built a powerful artificial intelligence program using far fewer computer chips than any Silicon Valley giant in the field. Liang Wenfeng, the founder of DeepSeek, was at the meeting on Monday, according to Chinese media.

Fred Hu, founder of the investment firm Primavera Capital in Hong Kong, called the meeting a symbolic “course correction.”

“In recent years the private sector has been hit by policies, politics and regulations,” Mr. Hu said.

The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong initially rallied more than 1 percent on Monday, but it gave up those gains and was trading lower in the afternoon.

Chinese social media was bursting with speculation about who had been at the meeting. The symposium quickly became one of the top five topics of discussion on Weibo, one of the most popular online platforms in China.

For many, the most important question ahead of the meeting was whether Mr. Ma, the Alibaba Group founder, would be in attendance.

It was the first time Mr. Ma had been seen in public with Mr. Xi since Beijing slammed the brakes on the initial public offering of his Ant Group in 2020, after he publicly criticized Chinese regulators for stifling innovation. The move by regulators to stop what would have been the world’s biggest I.P.O. was a key development in a multiyear government crackdown on Chinese entrepreneurs. Mr. Ma has kept largely out of the public eye since then.

Mr. Hu said that Mr. Ma’s presence at the meeting sent a message “that successful private entrepreneurs will be respected rather than penalized.”

Li You contributed research.