When Xi Jinping, China’s leader, made his entry into a symposium with a group of high entrepreneurs this week, he seemed to be in good spirit.
China has had a few good weeks. Artificial intelligence patterns from the beginning Deepseek sent us actions by falling and the Western commentators shouting, “Sputnik Moment”. Then an animated film based on Chinese mythology withdrew near nearly $ 2 billion. Mr. Xi signaled that he stood behind the private sector at a meeting on Monday, pushing the Hong Kong stock market at his highest point in three years.
For China, all provided a relief from two years of mistreatment – chronic economic problems and challenging geopolitics.
What remained unclear is how much of a sustainable growth of China’s economy could get from the ingenuity of a start, or how confidence the business community can flow. The interpretations of the meeting changed a lot.
“Is China,” asked a social media commentator, “now like Shanghai in 1949”, after which the private sector was nationalized under the rule of the Communist Party? “Or is she Shenzhen in 1979,” when China started the policies of reforming and opening its economy?
“No one knows,” was the answer from another commentator, who added that many of the old leaders present probably didn’t know.
Both the lack of faith and the desire to begin again are true, emphasizing the country’s impatience to get out of its fall and its uncertainty about its leader’s willingness to change the course. The private sector also has good reasons to worry that Beijing can mix more in businesses in the name of supporting them, stifling innovation and competition.
Mr. Xi called the meeting because he saw that the influence of Deepseek, a predominantly unknown start until last month, was much stronger than he tried to reach a top-down approach, said Xu Chenggang, an economist in Stanford. “He wanted private companies to help him find a way out of trouble,” he said.
Mr. Xu, who is critical of Mr. Xi’s leadership and was one of the first to show China’s deflationary pressures, said the arrival of Deepseek and other positive news could strengthen the trust of investors and that any continuous moment could support economy.
“I don’t think the tendency of economic downturn will change,” he said. “However, China may be able to get rid of a serious crisis that started a year ago and shifts to a strong but stable decline, giving it a chance to capture its breath.”
He said he also did not believe that Deepseek or artificial intelligence could regulate China’s economic problems: poor demand. If anything, it can strengthen the supply by making businesses more efficient, deteriorating the imbalance.
Mr. Xi has high hopes for private enterprises and entrepreneurs. During the symposium, he told them that they should be “positioned as the builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics and promoters of Chinese modernization.” Mr. Xi called on them to pursue high quality development and to strengthen independent innovation.
In a nearly 10-minute segment on the Symposium on State Television, China’s most prominent entrepreneurs, mainly in technology and advanced technology, stood with respect and clashed as Mr. Xi entered. After the meeting, they lined up to shake hands with it.
A couple of founders dressed what is called “Jacket Xi” – a dark, chained breeze, which the Chinese leader often wears and has become unofficial Chinese officialism uniform. While Mr. Xi spoke, many of the leaders, sitting in front of him as university students, appeared in the segment taking notes. Among them was Jack Ma, the founder of the Alibaba emails and the Behemoth online financial group, which was the first target of a technology blow that Mr. Xi performed during the pandemicism.
“The meeting felt like a teacher lecturing students,” told me a capitalist of the entrepreneur who invested in some of China’s most successful beginnings. “The market reaction surprised me – it was incredibly optimistic.”
The private sector contributes over 50 percent of China’s fiscal revenue, more than 60 percent of its economic production, more than 80 percent of urban employment and over 90 percent of the total number of enterprises, according to the state transmitter.
A businessman who hires thousands of people in China told me he was in the party’s interest to better treat entrepreneurs. “If the private sector collapses, China’s economy will disappear,” he said.
At the meeting, Mr. Xi spoke, as he often does, about his experience working in provinces where private companies were very competitive. But his economic thinking can be summarized as: bigger role for the state and a smaller role for the market. According to his rule, China withdrew from the pro-business policies that turned it into economics No. 2 of the world. It destroyed its most successful technology companies, sending entrepreneurs in early retirement or self-imposed exile.
Now while the country’s economy fights and artificial intelligence demonstrates its impact on China’s most important geopolitical rivalry with the United States, Mr. XI has shown some warmth to the private sector.
A founder of a publicly listed company told me that he believed that the Communist Party, which allows no force to rival it for power, would always be wary of the private sector.
A lawyer specialized in union and buying told me that he saw no signs of economic recovery as he passed through Shanghai. But he agreed that it was good that people were talking about the successes of Deepseek and “We ZA 2”, the animated block. Some investors hope the government will announce more essential policies during annual parliamentary sessions in March, he said.
The lawyer, like the other businessmen I interviewed, demanded that he not be named for fear of revenge to speak publicly.
State media and China’s government have announced Deepseek’s potential to increase economic growth. In recent weeks, the three main operators of China’s Telecom, state -owned enterprises and leading oil companies, as well as technology giants such as Tencent and Baidu, have announced partnerships with Deepseek. Some provinces have said they will integrate Deepseek models into their government service systems.
While these agreements were good news for Deepseek and could improve the productivity of these institutions, they could come to the expense of other artificial intelligence companies.
“The real impact of Deepseek is the destruction of other Chinese language models he,” wrote Jielin Dong, a scholar of China’s technology industry on X, “as all resources are flowing towards Deepseek, making it difficult for Others provide market funds and opportunities. that it would divert funds.
The entrepreneur capitalist who believed the market was overly optimistic expressed concern that much of the government’s attention could hurt Deepseek. Company founder Liang Wenfeng, who participated in the symposium with Mr. XI, is now spending time following political meetings and high and low officials, the entrepreneur capitalist said.
But this is a destiny Deepseek and other successful private enterprises may not be able to avoid.
After the symposium, a video scheme on Wechat showed a conversation between a tangerine and a businessman in the Ming dynasty. “How exactly should we manage things to bring a life to the market?” Mandarina asked. “Just leave alone,” replied the businessman.
The video has been deleted since then.