Shenzhen tech leaders join national private-enterprise symposium in Beijing

Overview

On the morning of February 17, 2025, a symposium on private enterprises was held in the East Hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. President Xi Jinping attended and delivered an important speech. Six entrepreneurs spoke on behalf of the business community: Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu, New Hope Group chairman Liu Yonghao, Will Semiconductor chairman Yu Renrong, Unitree Robotics CEO Wang Xingxing of Hangzhou, and Xiaomi chairman Lei Jun.

According to the local news portal Sznews, four entrepreneurs from Shenzhen attended: in addition to Ren Zhengfei and Wang Chuanfu, Tencent's Ma Huateng and EVOC Group's Chen Zhilie were present. The report noted that Shenzhen's delegation was as large as Beijing's.

Background

In recent years, amid economic uncertainty and a changing external environment, boosting private investment and entrepreneurs' confidence has become a major policy challenge in China. As an occasion for the top leadership to engage directly with private entrepreneurs, the symposium attracted wide attention at home and abroad.

Shenzhen grew up as a gateway for China's reform and opening-up, and private companies such as Huawei, BYD and Tencent are the main drivers of its growth and innovation. The presence of several of the city's flagship business leaders underlined Shenzhen's weight in the private economy.

Key Points

According to Xinhua, the main points of the speech were:

• Policy continuity: The basic policies on the private economy have become part of the institutional system and "cannot and will not change."
• Nature of the difficulties: Problems arising from technological change, external pressure, weak management at some firms and incomplete policy implementation are local, temporary and surmountable.
• Fair competition: Barriers to equal access to production factors and fair market competition should be removed, competitive infrastructure sectors opened to all types of business, and financing difficulties and overdue payments to private firms resolved.
• Legal protection: Illegal fees, fines, inspections and asset seizures should be rectified, and the lawful rights of private firms and entrepreneurs protected equally.
• Expectations of business: Entrepreneurs were urged to focus on their core businesses, strengthen the real economy and pursue innovation.

Sznews also reported that the share of private companies in the total market value of China's A-share market rose from 29% in early 2018 to 37% as of February 14, 2025, and that the Guangdong Development and Reform Commission set up a private economy development bureau that month.

What It Means for Japan–Shenzhen Exchange

Shenzhen's private companies have many ties with Japan, from product sales in the Japanese market to component trade and technical cooperation with Japanese firms. Some observers believe the reaffirmed support for the private economy may bring a degree of stability to the business environment and longer-term investment plans of Shenzhen companies, and Japanese business partners are watching how the policies are put into practice.

At the same time, the speech stressed that implementation is the top priority. How far issues such as overdue payments and fair market access are actually addressed is likely to be of interest to all market participants, including foreign-invested companies.

For Japanese companies, Shenzhen's private firms are both business partners and, in fields such as electric vehicles, telecommunications equipment and digital services, competitors. Policies on the operating environment for private companies may affect the pace of their R&D spending and overseas expansion, so they are worth following closely for Japanese industry as well. For the Japanese subsidiaries of Shenzhen companies and for Chinese-invested firms doing business in Japan, policy trends at home are also one of the basic assumptions behind their business plans.

Outlook

How the guidelines will be translated into laws, institutions and local measures depends on follow-up work by central departments and local governments. The specific support measures that Shenzhen and Guangdong will introduce for the private economy are a near-term focus.

From the Association

The Association will continue to follow policy developments affecting Shenzhen's private enterprises and share information with its members. We will keep working to provide a platform for mutual understanding between Japanese and Shenzhen companies.