Chinese ADRs and ETFs jumped in Friday trading. YINN rose 9%; Kingsoft Cloud rose 21%; Bilibili rose 14%; Nio, JD.com rose 6%; Alibaba, XPeng rose 5%; PDD, Li Auto rose 3%; Baidu rose 2%.

China has invited prominent entrepreneurs including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Jack Ma to meet the nation’s top leaders, people familiar with the matter said, a potentially momentous show of support for the private sector after years of turmoil.

The meeting may happen as soon as next week and include DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, the people said. While further details are sparse, the people said President Xi Jinping is expected to attend.

The Chinese leader’s schedule is closely guarded and often remains unclear until the last minute. But a meeting involving Xi and Ma has the potential to send a powerful signal that China’s Communist Party is adopting a more supportive stance toward private-sector companies that fuel most of the country’s economic growth.

The State Council Information Office didn’t respond to a fax seeking comment on the meeting, first reported by Reuters. Deepseek and Alibaba representatives also didn’t respond.

Authorities have taken a less combative approach more recently as China’s economy slowed and companies like Alibaba aligned themselves with Xi’s push for leadership in areas like artificial intelligence.

Liang, whose low-cost chatbot has vaulted China near the top of the race for AI supremacy, attended a closed-door business symposium hosted by Chinese Premier Li Qiang last month. Ma, who has gradually become more visible in recent years, gave a speech on topics including AI to Ant employees in December.

Optimism over AI’s potential has sparked a blistering rally in China’s stock market over the past month, turning the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index into the world’s best-performer. Speculation on social media about a potential meeting between Chinese authorities and companies including Alibaba has added to the positive sentiment in recent days, driving shares of the tech giant to their highest level since July 2022.

Still, it remains unclear to what extent authorities plan to shift their stance toward the private sector. A show of support by Xi would almost certainly add fuel to the stock-market rally and revive animal spirits among entrepreneurs, but much would depend on whether authorities follow through with more concrete policy actions.

Few China watchers expect the government to revert to its pre-2020 stance, even as it seeks to shore up the economy for a potential trade war with Donald Trump.

No business figure encapsulates the ups and downs of China’s private sector better than Ma, the former English school-teacher who created Alibaba from his lakeside apartment in 1999. Alibaba vanquished foreign rivals including eBay Inc. before growing into China’s largest corporation, propelling Ma’s reputation as a giant of private industry and tech innovation.