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Wang Bin, chairman of China Life Insurance, listed on the Shanghai, Hong Kong and New York Stock Exchanges, is under investigation by the Communist Party’s Anti-Corruption Commission, according to Bloomberg news agency. Chinese regulators have long attacked indebted and mismanaged companies.
Wang Bin, the boss of China Life Insurance, is in the sights of Chinese regulators for suspicion of ” serious violations of discipline and the law “, According to a statement from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in China published on Saturday, January 8. He doesn’t go into more detail, but that kind of wording usually precedes accusations of corruption.
China Life lost 54% in profits in the third quarter. The insurance giant and other large insurers are caught in the turmoil of declining Chinese growth, due, among other things, to the zero Covid policy which is weakening its economy.
A merciless fight once morest corruption
For years, Chinese authorities have tackled over-indebtedness and corporate mismanagement. A battle that has recently focused on the real estate giant Evergrande, on the verge of bankruptcy, with risks of financial contagion in other sectors.
More than a million officials have been sanctioned in recent years as part of the fight once morest corruption launched by President Xi Jinping. Last year, Lai Xiaomin, the former chairman of Huarong, a major state-controlled asset management company, was executed. He had, according to Chinese justice, accepted bribes of 260 million dollars.
In September, Yuan Renguo, the former head of Keichow Moutai, the company that markets the world’s most expensive spirits, was jailed for life for accepting more than $ 17 million in bribes.
In 2020, the former head of the Chinese insurance regulatory authority was sentenced to eleven years in prison, also for accepting bribes.
(with AFP)
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