Alibaba Group’s formerly exiled founder Jack Ma’s appearance at Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent symposium highlights Beijing’s determination to use innovative technologies to maintain its economic growth.
After forcing Alibaba’s Ant Group to scrap its initial public offering in Hong Kong in November 2020, Beijing spent a year and a half tightening regulations in the internet sector.
All internet platforms, including Douyin, Kuaishou, Alibaba and Tencent, had faced regulatory clampdowns. Food-delivery platforms were accused of breaching labor rights while ride-hailing companies were fined for illegally collecting users’ data.
During that period, billionaire Ma stayed in Tokyo with his family, met friends on his luxury yacht in Europe and visited agricultural technology firms worldwide.
In June 2022, Li Daokui, a former advisor to the People’s Bank of China, said the clampdown on Chinese internet giants had basically ended.
He explained that the scrapping of Ant’s IPO plan in November 2020 had been a political decision due to Chinese leaders’ shock at seeing many party members’ names on the company’s shareholder list.
In March 2023, Ma reportedly returned to China after exile. In July 2024, he gave a speech at Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou.
Some observers say Ma’s “self-exile” from late 2020 to early 2023 showed Xi’s negative attitude towards China’s internet giants and many private companies. They say Beijing is now trying to use Ma and a group of Hangzhou-based corporate leaders to tell the outside world that China welcomes all technology companies.
Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose to HK$138.5 (US$17.8) on February 21, 11.6% up from a week earlier. Tencent’s shares surged 8.9% to HK$517, while Kuaishou Technology’s grew 9.2% to HK$58.4 for the same period.
“Xi’s symposium is of great significance,” a Chinese columnist using the pseudonym “Fengye,” or Maple Leaf, says in an article published by Beijing-based Zhengshang Canyue. The writer continues:
The development of the private economy in the new era and a new journey has broad prospects and great potential. After the US election, the global economy continues to be turbulent, and many European and American companies are in turmoil. However, Chinese companies focus on innovative and cutting-edge technologies and keep increasing their competitiveness.
The high performance of China’s artificial intelligence models amazed the world; China’s robots danced in the Spring Festival Gala; and Chinese electric vehicles gradually won support in the international market with their excellent quality and performance.
He adds that it’s good to have Jack Ma attend the symposium as Ma is an icon representing the first batch of Chinese Internet firms that have made outstanding achievements and laid a strong foundation for the emergence of many technology startups.
Besides, he points out that Ma’s return to China could also mean that the billionaire did not find any compelling projects overseas but saw strong growth prospects in China’s technology sector after the “Six Little Dragons in Hangzhou” emerged.
‘Six Little Dragons’
According to the Chinese media, the Six Little Dragons in Hangzhou are DeepSeek, Unitree Robotics, Game Science, Deep Robotics, Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) and Manycore Tech.
DeepSeek was founded by Liang Wenfeng, a Zhejiang University graduate, in December 2023. On January 20 this year, the company launched DeepSeek-R1, which within days surpassed ChatGPT to become No.1 on the free app download charts in the US.
Hangzhou Yushu Technology, known as Unitree, was founded by Wang Xingxing in 2016. Its dancing robots won applause at China Central TV’s Spring Festival Gala on January 28, 2025.
Game Science is a Chinese video game developer founded by Feng Ji and Yang Qi in 2014.
Deep Robotics was co-founded by Zhu Qiuguo and Li Chao in 2017.
BCI, which is engaged in real-time thought decoding, remote robot control, and brain-machine co-evolution, was established by Han Bicheng in 2015.
Manycore Tech, a maker of 3D design software, was co-founded by three Chinese graduates of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2011.
“Xi’s symposium highlighted Zhejiang, as the province has a good business environment,” Wang Bin, a columnist for the Zhejiang Daily’s social media account, writes in an article.
“Zhejiang is a place full of the human touch. Everyone can feel this in their work and life here,” Wang says. “When a place is like a harbor that protects people, it is easier to retain people and businesses.”
Since ending its Covid rules in early 2023, China has experienced a wave of capital outflows. Some economists say it is due to weak domestic consumption, rising political tensions between the United States and China and the rate hikes in the US.
According to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, China’s net foreign direct investment (FDI) decreased by US$168 billion last year, the biggest capital flight since 1990. Foreign investment into China hit a historical high of US$344 billion in 2021 but has dropped since then.
Foreign investors only sent US$4.5 billion into China, while Chinese firms invested US$173 billion overseas in 2024.
Due to growing tensions between China and the US, many international companies adopted a “China-plus-one” strategy to invest not only in China but also in other places. Besides, many Chinese companies are now building factories overseas, fearing US President Donald Trump will increase tariffs on imports from China.
Alibaba’s AI plan
It is unclear whether Beijing’s high-tech campaign can help retain and attract foreign investment, but it did boost Alibaba’s shares.
Alibaba’s shares also gained support after The Information reported on February 11 that Apple Inc. partnered with Alibaba to bring AI features to the iPhone. Apple targets the launch of its AI-powered iPhones in China in May.
On February 20, Alibaba Chief Executive Eddie Wu said in an investor call that artificial generative intelligence (AGI) is at the core of the company’s AI strategy. He said the company will invest heavily in AI infrastructure, foundation models and AI-powered business transformation in the coming years.
Eurizon Capital, one of the largest asset management companies in Europe, said in an article that investors should be positive about Chinese equities for several reasons:
- Continued regulatory easing in China since the end of 2023;
- Growing China’s manufacturing and technological prowess, shown by the growing trade surplus in 2024 and the recent rise of DeepSeek;
- Stabilizing property sector and consumer sentiment;
- Resilient Chinese bonds and currency.
Eurizon’s analysts said that since late 2023, Beijing’s political and policy atmosphere has shifted away from the acutely punitive posture against the private sector adopted in the summer of 2021 toward a more pragmatic and market-friendly stance.
They added that while Chinese equities are not expensive, the world is still underweighting them as many investors have adopted an ABC mentality, which refers to “anything but China.”
Some commentators say it’s wise for China to highlight its technology sector, which has performed better than other industries, but such a strategy may prompt China hawks in the US to push for sanctioning Chinese technology startups.
Yong Jian is a contributor to the Asia Times. He is a Chinese journalist who specializes in Chinese technology, economy, and politics.
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