BEIJING, Feb 17, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Chinese President Xi Jinping held a meeting with private business leaders on Monday, with Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma in attendance, state media footage showed.

Since coming to power more than a decade ago, Xi has consistently sought to bolster the role of state enterprises in the world's second-largest economy and warned against the "disorderly" expansion of the private sector.

But reports last week said the Chinese leader was preparing to hold talks with leading business luminaries, as the country battles a slowing economy beset by a real-estate crisis, persistently low consumption and high youth unemployment.

State broadcaster CCTV reported Monday that the meeting had taken place at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, with video showing Ma standing and applauding as Xi entered a lavish room.

Ma's inclusion hints at the billionaire magnate's potential public rehabilitation after years out of the spotlight following a tangle with regulators.

Other participants included Ren Zhengfei -- the founder of tech titan Huawei -- and Wang Chuanfu, who established electric-vehicle giant BYD.

CCTV broadcast clips of Xi, Ren and Wang addressing the meeting but did not immediately provide audio or written details of what they said.

Ma, a former English teacher, founded tech behemoth Alibaba in 1999 and built it into one of China's most recognisable and dominant private companies.

He once cultivated a high-profile public persona but has eschewed the limelight in recent years, particularly since authorities cancelled the blockbuster IPO of Alibaba affiliate Ant Group in 2020 after Ma made a speech criticising regulators.