China's President Xi Jinping and other leaders in the country have met with private sector business leaders amid concerns over trade friction with the United States.

Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, and the leaders of other major firms, including Huawei and BYD, attended Monday's meeting.

Among the other prominent attendees was Liang Wenfeng, who founded DeepSeek, a startup that stunned the world with its generative AI model.

Xi stressed that his government is committed to promoting the development of private sector firms. He said he hopes private sector firms and entrepreneurs have the ambition to serve the country and make contributions to Chinese-style modernization.

Concerns are growing over an escalating tit-for-tat tariff battle between China and the US, where President Donald Trump recently took office.

The Chinese economy is slowing down. Foreign direct investment into China shrank by roughly 90 percent last year, compared to the previous year.

The appearance of Jack Ma at the meeting -- who has kept a low-profile since criticizing financial authorities -- could be a sign of leaders' willingness to work with the private sector in the face of economic headwinds.