Xi Jinping’s Closed-Door Summit: What China’s Top Tech Moguls Heard Behind the Scenes

In a move as rare as it is momentous, Chinese President Xi Jinping recently met with some of the country’s most powerful tech moguls—including Alibaba’s legendary founder, Jack Ma.

This gathering—the first of its kind since 2018—was more than a symbolic gesture; it was a carefully orchestrated effort to reassure China’s private sector, particularly the tech industry.

Seated at the table alongside Jack Ma were some of China’s most influential business leaders: Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun; Tencent chief Pony Ma Huateng; Wang Chuanfu, chairman of the world’s largest EV maker, BYD; and Ren Zhengfei, founder and CEO of Huawei Technologies.

Underscoring the strategic weight of the meeting, three of China’s most powerful policymakers from the Politburo Standing Committee—the nation’s highest decision-making body—were in attendance.

They included Premier Li Qiang, Executive Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang, and Wang Huning, chairman of the country’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Devil in the Details

China’s technological breakthroughs in recent months have been undeniably impressive.

These include advances in military equipment: a sixth-generation stealth combat aircraft, a new amphibious assault carrier, and hypersonic air-to-air missiles, among others. Notable achievements have also emerged in nuclear fusion and high-speed railway technologies.

However, perhaps the most headline-grabbing development has been driven largely by DeepSeek—the poster child for Chinese AI ingenuity that has taken the tech world by storm in the past month with its cheap-to-train but robust AI model.

Boasting capabilities on par with leading U.S. models from OpenAI and Meta—but at a fraction of the cost—DeepSeek is reshaping the AI landscape, making advanced artificial intelligence more accessible than ever. Meanwhile, Alibaba’s Qwen and ByteDance’s Goku are also leading the charge, reinforcing China’s growing dominance in artificial intelligence.

Against this backdrop, President Xi Jinping’s meeting with China’s top tech moguls carries a clear and calculated message: China’s leadership is throwing its weight behind tech once again.

But this is more than just a handshake between the state and private enterprises—it’s a strategic realignment. Xi’s outreach underscores a renewed national focus on homegrown innovation as China seeks to challenge U.S. technological supremacy, writes Emily Jin, a China analyst at Datenna.

Innovation: The New Mantra of Tiananmen

As China takes the world by storm with its unrelenting wave of innovation, a pressing question looms: What are the limits of its technological ambition?

A useful starting point to understand this is Xi Jinping’s 2022 treatise, Total National Security Paradigm: A Study Outline.

This doctrine weaves technological self-reliance into China’s broader security framework, championing a simple but powerful mantra: “Science and technology are the foundation of national strength and prosperity, and innovation is the soul of national progress.”

However, China’s policymakers remain keenly aware of historical weaknesses in homegrown innovation. A blunt passage from the document spells it out:

"Our innovation capabilities began at a very weak starting point, the overall efficiency of our innovation system is low, the integration of scientific and technological innovation resources is insufficient, and the deployment of scientific and technological innovation forces needs to be optimized."

This self-awareness has already triggered sweeping policy shifts. Strategies like Dual Circulation, Made in China 2025, and Document 79—which sets a 2027 deadline to eliminate dependence on Western technology in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector—lay out China’s roadmap for total technological self-sufficiency.

Moving forward, Beijing has now set its sights on autonomous innovation—or, as the document calls it, “original innovation capabilities.”

“We are a great power. In terms of technological innovation, we must make our own unique contributions. If we always follow and imitate others, there will be no way forward. Not only will the technological gap widen, but we will also be permanently locked into the lower end of the industrial value chain,” reads the text.

China’s leadership recognizes that Western dominance has long relied on a single pillar: control over high-end innovation. The paradigm stresses that catching up isn't enough; China must set the pace in frontier technologies.

“We must become pace-setters in crucial fields, pioneers in emerging and interdisciplinary sectors, and build a nation that leads in science, aerospace, digitalization, transportation, and AI-driven smart societies.”

China’s Strategy: Calculated & Asymmetric

For decades, China’s technological progress was driven more by its industrial production lines than by university research labs. The ability of its workforce to refine processes—combined with aggressive industrial policies, subsidies, and controversial economic measures like exchange rate interventions—propelled the country into a global manufacturing and export powerhouse.

No longer content with refining existing technologies, China has shifted its focus to autonomous innovation.

In emerging fields like AI and quantum computing, Chinese policymakers are no longer satisfied with merely keeping pace. They want China to seize the "commanding heights" of global science and technology, writes Emily.

A prime example is Hangzhou-based DeepSeek. In December, the company launched a low-cost large language model (LLM) with 671 billion parameters, trained in just two months for only $5.58 million—a feat that embodies China’s new strategic direction.

At the same time, Beijing is prioritizing core technologies in areas of urgent national need and long-term demand, such as oil and gas, basic raw materials, high-end chips, industrial software, crop seeds, scientific experimental instruments and equipment, and chemical preparations.

Take Yaoguang, for instance: a groundbreaking industrial software released for free by Chinese scientists in January. Designed for electronic warfare weapon development, it has already outperformed a leading U.S. counterpart in both speed and memory efficiency.

The significance of Yaoguang is monumental. When Chinese scientists compete with American or global counterparts in crafting next-generation electronic warfare systems, they can now complete theoretical verification 15 times faster while using the same computing resources.

Meanwhile, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing, innovation is on full display—literally. In the atrium of a research building, a towering, five-meter-wide “wall of patents” showcases 192 certificates, illuminated with precision. Below, behind a velvet rope, glass jars contain the physical embodiments of these innovations: seeds.

As the world’s largest research institution, CAS—alongside other top-tier Chinese laboratories—has been at the forefront of agricultural breakthroughs. In recent years, Chinese scientists have identified genes that increase wheat grain size, enhance sorghum and millet resilience in salty soils, and boost maize yields by approximately 10 per cent.

The objective is clear: autonomy, control, and the ability to dictate the pace of global innovation rather than follow it.

Assassin’s Mace: Beijing’s Trump Card

The real shift lies in China’s push for strategic independence and resilience in critical technological domains by developing "assassin’s maces"—game-changing technologies designed as a buffer against technological blockades or disruptions by rival nations.

The term refers to a weapon from ancient Chinese folklore that targets an enemy’s fatal weakness. In today’s geopolitical landscape, Beijing is applying this philosophy to economic warfare, securing dominance over critical technologies, materials, and industries.

China has already demonstrated this leverage.

In December 2023, Beijing banned shipments to America of gallium, germanium and antimony—rare metals needed to make advanced chips, weapons and munitions—as well as some “superhard” materials with defence applications.

Taking it a step further, China’s use of its trump card follows a clear commercial logic. Its officials block the flow of key inputs and intellectual property to foreign firms that pose a challenge to its domestic tech champions, says Rebecca Arcesati of MERICS, a leading European think tank.

A prime example of this economic warfare unfolded on February 4, 2024.

As part of its response to U.S. tariffs, China’s Commerce Ministry blacklisted American genomic-sequencing giant Illumina, adding it to its “unreliable entities list”—a move that could sever its access to Chinese patients and manufacturing facilities.

This decision comes amid a fierce global battle between Illumina and China’s own biotech giant, BGI, for dominance in the genomic-sequencing market.

A Power Struggle Within: SOEs vs. Private Giants

For over four decades since China’s reform and opening up, Beijing has often faced criticism for favoring state-owned enterprises (SOEs) while sidelining private companies.

This perception has been reinforced by government crackdowns on monopolistic practices among internet giants, stringent regulations on after-school tutoring, and the abrupt halting of Ant Group’s initial public offering (IPO). These incidents have led many to question whether the private sector is truly on equal footing with SOEs in China’s evolving economic landscape.

SOEs serve as the backbone of the country’s infrastructure, providing essential utility services at controlled rates—conditions that benefit businesses across industries. This dual structure remains a defining feature of China’s economic model.

However, under President Xi Jinping, the private sector has increasingly felt the strain of policies favoring SOEs, culminating in high-profile cases like the marginalization of Alibaba founder Jack Ma.

After his 2020 speech at the Bund Summit in Shanghai, where he said that regulations would ‘stie innovation', Ma was swiftly summoned by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and Ant Group’s IPO was scrapped. This crackdown underscored what the future of China’s private sector would be under Xi.

The rise of the private sector was also unacceptable to Xi, as it created another power lobby capable of challenging his policies and imposed restrictions. Since taking office Xi's administration has made it clear that SOEs should be the primary drivers of economic growth.

Yet, despite these efforts, the economic reality tells a different story. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, SOEs have struggled to keep pace, while private businesses have surged ahead.

Amid these internal challenges, China has also had to navigate external pressures, particularly from Washington’s “small yard, high fence” strategy—an attempt to curb China’s access to key U.S. technologies like semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

Ironically, these restrictions have spurred greater collaboration between China’s public and private sectors, accelerating efforts to reduce reliance on foreign technology. China has thus become less reliant on US technologies, and it is doing just fine.

Put simply, Xi Jinping is coming to terms with the reality that his much-vaunted security strategy cannot succeed without the backing of tech giants and their relentless drive for innovation.

If Beijing were to withstand mounting geopolitical tensions, it must harness the power of its private sector to stay ahead in the global race for technological supremacy.

Xi’s Endorsement: A Game-Changer

In today’s China, few things carry more weight than a direct endorsement from President Xi. A public display of support for private enterprises can spark investment, mobilize government initiatives, and signal a potential market rebound—turning words into action, reports South China Morning Post.

A similar pattern played out after the 2018 symposium when China swiftly followed through on its commitment to upgrading the manufacturing sector, with the result being Made In China 2025 initiative

Likewise, Monday’s meeting is being widely interpreted as a symbolic turning point—potentially marking the end of the sweeping regulatory crackdown that had cast a shadow over key industries, particularly the tech sector.

During the meeting, Xi reaffirmed the indispensable role of private enterprises in China’s economy and emphasized their right to equal treatment alongside state-owned firms.

He assured business leaders that private companies would have the same access to markets, infrastructure projects, and financing as their public counterparts. He also acknowledged concerns—previously raised by other officials—about local governments resorting to excessive fees and fines to offset revenue gaps.

Morgan Stanley analysts, led by Robin Xing, reinforced this view, stating that “Beijing is repositioning the private sector as a pillar of national competitiveness amid economic and geopolitical headwinds.” They also pointed to the reemergence of a high-profile business leader as “the first definitive sign that a regulatory reset has concluded.”

The East Wind Prevails

With innovation tightly controlled and state-backed, Xi is once again invoking the idea of China’s ascent alongside the West’s decline.

“In the long term, the east wind is still prevailing … confidence is very important,” he declared, echoing a slogan famously used by Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China.

In the 1950s, Mao borrowed the phrase “the east wind prevails over the west wind” from classical literature to assert socialism’s ultimate victory over capitalism. Today, Xi’s rhetoric signals a similar belief in China’s technological and economic trajectory.

None of this means, however, that China has won the AI race—or even taken the lead. American companies remain at the forefront, continuously integrating breakthroughs and pushing new frontiers.

However, if the buzz on DeepSeek’s AI model breakthrough were to be taken into consideration, questions inevitably arise about the future of U.S. technological dominance. Could Chinese firms outpace their Western rivals in this high-stakes race for dominance? It's a question that many are eager to see answered.