As the United States, under the new Trump administration intensifies its trade tariffs globally, specially on China, the country is now looking to bring back its out-in-cold tech leaders back to the global arena. This includes the almost-disappeared Alibaba founder Jack Ma, the AI wonderkid DeepSeek’s founder among others. Much of this is to show that a more lenient business environment is back, with China focusing on building indigenous tech in emerging areas such as Artificial Intelligence.
According to a report by Bloomberg, China has invited top leaders from the private sector across various countries to discuss challenges and outline a future roadmap to maintain its position as a prominent leader in the international tech sector.
China’s invitation to prominent entrepreneurs, including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma and DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, to meet with top leaders signifies a strategic shift in the government’s approach to the private sector. Notably, major Chinese firms are currently facing regulatory hurdles and scrutiny internationally (mainly in the US).
For example, the two-year-old Hangzhou-based startup DeepSeek, whose artificial intelligence model has gained rapid attention, is suddenly facing bans from several countries. The list includes Italy, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, and the United States. DeepSeek recently released its DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1 models. Notably, the DeepSeek-R1 model is said to be 20 to 50 times more cost-efficient than similar offerings from industry giants.
Additionally, China-based ByteDance-owned TikTok is also facing uncertainty in the United States, even after receiving temporary relief from newly elected President Donald Trump.
Speaking of the significance of the latest move, there are speculations that China’s President Xi Jinping himself will chair this meeting, which clearly shows the importance the Chinese government places on enabling a more favourable environment for private businesses. Reports suggest that this engagement aims to rebuild trust, encourage innovation among entrepreneurs, and stimulate economic growth in the country.
Meanwhile, in the upcoming meeting, Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma will be in the spotlight, as his invitation marks a significant rehabilitation of his public image after facing regulatory challenges in recent years. This development comes at a time when Alibaba has announced a partnership with the US-based tech giant Apple to bring artificial intelligence features to iPhones in China.
Talking about the technology market (specifically the artificial intelligence sector), the global AI market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 27.67% between 2025-30, reaching a total value of $826.7 billion. China’s AI market alone is projected to hit $206.6 billion by 2030, growing at a much faster rate (44.4% CAGR) than the global average. This suggests China is heavily investing in AI.
