China’s tech bros, including Jack Ma of Alibaba and Liang Wenfeng of DeepSeek, stole all the attention at the high-profile symposium of entrepreneurs held by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on February 17th. Amid all the hoopla, one guest passed almost unnoticed, but his presence may say a lot more about the actual state of China’s economy than the superstars of online commerce and ai.
The Economist
