On the western side of Tiananmen Square in Beijing stands the Great Hall of the People, built in 1959. Renowned for its grand design, it hosts key government meetings, including the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
The main hall can accommodate thousands of people, with other smaller halls and official reception rooms often used for diplomatic events and high-level political meetings. It is an iconic setting and a symbol of China’s political power.
It was interesting, therefore, that Chinese President Xi Jinping recently chose the Great Hall to host leaders in the technology sector. Something similar took place in 2018, shortly after the (then new) US President Donald Trump began his first term.
The Beijing get-together follows the Paris Summit in February, where governments and tech leaders discussed AI policies and research. Core to the talks was the debate over whether—and how—to regulate the field. Trump’s team has adopted a laissez-faire attitude, but some in Europe want strict regulation.
China’s private sector
The Great Hall meeting also comes at a time when China is facing mounting economic challenges. Long rampant growth is slowing, and US restrictions are hampering Beijing’s all-important high-tech industries.
China’s economy continues to rely on strong exports, which are now threatened by Trump’s second-term tariffs. All the more reason, then, for Xi to foster domestic innovation and build confidence in China’s technology firms.
The Chinese government and the country’s private sector have had a somewhat tense relationship over recent years, but Xi will know that its firms' success in the tech battle with their American peers is now of strategic importance.
According to a Reuters report, China’s private sector—which competes with state-owned enterprises—contributes more than half of China’s tax revenues, over 60% of its economic output, and 70% of its technological innovation.
President Xi wants China's private sector to keep pace with technological advances made in the US, where projects like Stargate aim to establish massive data centres. This means Beijing expanding its digital infrastructure.
In attendance at the Great Hall were prominent figures such as Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, and Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek, which recently made headlines for developing an advanced AI chatbot at a fraction of those from US companies.