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Xi Jinping rallies China’s tech champions as rivalry with US intensifies
- Xi Jinping has called on Chinese entrepreneurs to align their business strategies with national needs, while promising continued support for their operations
- Speech comes amid rising China-US tension and a desire by some foreign firms to reduce supply chain dependence on the country
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A leaked list of entrepreneurs who attended a symposium with President Xi Jinping on Tuesday underscores the Chinese leader’s intention to groom home-grown technology champions to better compete with the United States as a trans-Pacific tech rivalry heats up.
The list included a who's who of Chinese hi-tech power, including Chen Zongnian, chairman of Hikvision, a state-owned video surveillance manufacturer on the US entity list, manufacturing titans like Wang Min, the chairman of XCMG Group, and representatives from China’s largest state-owned industrial conglomerates, including Sinochem Group, which trades in energy and chemicals.
The South China Morning Post confirmed the list of delegates with two separate sources after it was posted to Twitter.
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Among the 25 business leaders at the conference, more than half were emerging industry leaders in the fields of chip making, artificial intelligence and smart manufacturing.
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Xi called on them to be patriotic and innovative, as the threat of decoupling from the US grows and foreign manufacturers seek to reduce reliance on the country for strategic goods.
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