By Jiaxing Li

HONG KONG, Feb 18 (Reuters) - China and Hong Kong stocks climbed on Tuesday, with tech shares leading the rally as Chinese President Xi Jinping's meeting with business leaders, including Jack Ma, spurred bets for a policy turnaround following years of crackdown on the sector.

** The Hang Seng Tech Index .HSTECH climbed 3% to a fresh three-year high by the lunch break, bringing the gains for the past month to over 30%.

** Index heavyweight Alibaba 9988.HK surged 4.3% to a near three-year high, after state media CCTV aired its founder Jack Ma and President Xi shaking hands during the meeting on Monday.

** Tencent 700.HK jumped 3.4% to the highest level since 2021 and Xiaomi 1810.HK rallied nearly 6% to a record high after their executives attended the meeting with Xi.

** The Hang Seng Index .HSI jumped more than 2% to its highest level since early October 2024.

** Xi held a rare meeting on Monday with some of the biggest names in China's technology sector, and urged them to "show their talent" and be confident in the power of China's model and market.

** Private business had "broad prospects and great promise" to create wealth and opportunity, Xi was quoted as saying.

** "We think the symposium marks an end to the crackdown, potentially removing one of the longest-lasting overhangs on the sector's performance," analysts at UBS Global Wealth Management said in a note.

** Xi's support for innovation industries, ongoing macro policy support, and other fundamental improvements will be crucial drivers of the Chinese tech sector's outperformance against the broader market from here, they said.

** Onshore markets also climbed on Tuesday. China's blue-chip CSI300 Index .CSI300 added 0.4%, while the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC gained 0.3%. Both gauges are at their highest levels so far this year.

(Reporting by Jiaxing Li in Hong Kong; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

((jiaxing.li@thomsonreuters.com +852 63358304))