China’s leader, Xi Jinping, held a rare public meeting with the country’s leading tech entrepreneurs, underscoring the government’s change of heart towards an industry it had cracked down on a few years ago. Mr Xi was seen shaking hands with Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, who at one stage moved to Japan after criticising Chinese regulators. Liang Wenfeng, the founder of DeepSeek, was also there, as were bosses from Tencent, BYD and CATL. Baidu’s share price plunged when its chief executive was not spotted at the gathering. With China’s economy struggling and the rivalry with America heating up, Mr Xi has become more favourable towards private enterprise.