China signals softening stance on private sector as economy flounders

Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week held a forum with business leaders, affirming the rehabilitation of Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma and signaling Beijing’s shift to embrace its private sector.

The forum also included leaders from Robotics start-up Unitree, electric automaker BYD, and AI start-up DeepSeek, companies that China is relying on to boost the economy as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and a housing market crisis that has spiraled since 2021, Bloomberg reported.

Ma had been out of the public eye after a 2020 speech criticizing Beijing’s financial regulations, “becoming the most prominent victim” of the government’s yearslong crackdown on its tech sector, the Financial Times wrote.

But at the symposium, which “had all the trappings of a national turning point,” Ma sat front row as Xi vowed to improve China’s business environment. Amid economic malaise, private companies are driving innovation and growth, which Beijing desperately needs, Bloomberg wrote.

However, while China shows signs it may back its domestic sector, Western tech, and financial firms are increasingly scaling back their presence there.

With US-China trade tensions rising, tech companies are adopting an “Anything But China” approach, The Wall Street Journal reported, by not only diversifying their supply chains, but also in building factories outside the country.