news

image source: website of the central commission for discipline inspection and the state supervision commission

author | wen shijun

editor | wang weikai

produced | prism·tencent xiaoman studio

more than five months after being rumored to have "lost contact", on the last working day before the long holiday,new china insuranceformer chairman li quan's name appears on the website of the central commission for discipline inspection and the state supervision commission.

the central commission for discipline inspection and the national supervisory commission verified that li quan was "confronting organizational censorship", "receiving gifts and money in violation of regulations, taking advantage of the convenience of working in state-owned financial institutions to engage in profit-making activities, taking part-time jobs in violation of regulations, and receiving excessive remuneration"; "relying on finance to eat finance", engaging in power-for-money transactions and illegally accepting huge amounts of property and other "serious violations of discipline and law".

the message from the central commission for discipline inspection and the state supervision commission was harshly worded: "it is of a serious nature and has a bad influence" and "should be dealt with seriously". it decided to "expel him from the party" and "cancel the benefits he enjoys in accordance with regulations; confiscate his illegal income; and put him on suspicion of crimes." the issue will be transferred to the procuratorate for review and prosecution in accordance with the law, and the property involved will be transferred together."

in fact, as early as april this year, li quan was reported to have "lost contact" by the media. at that time, some media reported that li quan no longer appeared in his usual badminton hall. some media also tried to contact li quan, but the woman who answered the phone said she did not know li quan and quickly hung up. insiders of xinhua insurance also revealed to the media that they were also unable to contact li quan.

with the release of this official news, the rumors of being investigated have been officially confirmed, the disciplinary inspection and supervision phase has been completed, and the handling of it has also entered the judicial process.

this adds another line to the list of executives dismissed from the insurance industry in recent years:

july 2024,china taipingthe first instance of the bribery case of former deputy general manager xiao xing was held; in march 2024, the former president of china life property and casualty insurance liu anlin was examined; in february 2024, the former general manager of taiping life insurance zhang ke was expelled from the party; in september 2023,china lifeformer chairman wang bin was sentenced to a suspended death sentence at first instance; in january 2023, lin zhiyong, the former president of picc property and casualty insurance company, was "double opened"; in december 2022, chen yong, the former president of continental insurance and the former business director of china re group, was arrested; in 2022 in may, su xinfa, a former member of the party committee of picc investment holdings, was under surveillance and investigation; in december 2021, shen dong, vice president of picc property and casualty insurance, was under review...

another person was killed in "wudaokou level 85"

li quan was born in august 1963. therefore, when xinhua insurance disclosed that li quan resigned from the company due to "age reasons" on august 22, 2023, he resigned as "chairman, executive director, ceo, chairman of the strategy committee of the board of directors, member of the investment committee, and risk management and consumer rights protection committee". "committee and all other positions", it seems logical to retire at age.

but in fact, there were already some negative rumors from the outside world at that time.

especially a few days later, on august 31, 2023, the first instance of the bribery case of wan feng, li quan’s “old leader” and the fourth chairman of xinhua insurance, opened. the procuratorial agency alleged that between the summer solstice of 1998 and before the mid-autumn festival in 2017, wan feng illegally received more than 12.09 million yuan in property on multiple occasions (of which 10 million yuan was attempted). four months later, wan feng was sentenced to six years and six months in prison and fined 700,000 yuan.

wan feng was also investigated after his retirement.

wan feng was born in 1958 and served as the president of china life in 2007. in 2014, wan feng left china life to join new china insurance and was hired as president, and became chairman in 2016. after serving for less than three years, in early 2019, 61-year-old wan feng left xinhua insurance and became the interim head of shin kong hna life.

in june 2019, the name of shin kong hna life was changed to dingcheng life, the original shareholders hna group and shin kong life withdrew, and the legal representative was also changed from cheng xiaoyun to wan feng, with wan feng serving as chairman. the reorganization of dingcheng life insurance became wan feng's final work. more than a year later, in august 2020, 62-year-old wan feng announced his "retirement."

in november 2022, two years after his "retirement", wan feng was rumored to have "lost contact". more than half a year later, in june 2023, the central commission for discipline inspection and the state supervisory commission disclosed the news that wan feng had been expelled from the party and transferred to the procuratorate for prosecution.

in june 2019, at the critical moment when wan feng left xinhua insurance and reorganized dingcheng life, li quan, then president of xinhua asset management, became the interim head of xinhua insurance. in august of that year, li quan became ceo and president of new china insurance.

the insurance asset management company is mainly engaged in investment management and asset allocation business. generally speaking, before li quan took charge of the overall situation, he was responsible for adding value to xinhua insurance's "financial management" investments.

after wan feng, although the major shareholder central huijin had "parachuted in" to elect liu haoling and xu zhibin as chairman of xinhua insurance, both of them had not been in office for long, and their focus was still on central huijin's work. in fact, li quan was the core figure of the company for a long time after wan feng left new china insurance in 2019.

in september 2022, xu zhibin resigned as chairman of xinhua life insurance. after the chairman's position remained vacant for more than half a year, li quan's qualifications were approved in april 2023. on april 10, li quan became the seventh chairman of xinhua insurance.

more than four months later, on august 22, 2023, li quan resigned from all positions in xinhua insurance and "retired", focusing on badminton until he lost contact.

it is worth mentioning that li quan is the famous "wudaokou level 85". in 1988, he graduated from wudaokou (formerly the graduate department of the people's bank of china, nowtsinghua university pbc school of finance) graduates - among the same class, there are not only many accomplished alumni in the financial world, but also zhang yujun, the former assistant chairman of the china securities regulatory commission who was investigated and dismissed, dai zhikang, the former chairman of zendai group,bank of chinaformer chairman liu liange, former director of the issuance supervision department of the china securities regulatory commission zhu congjiu and others.

wudaokou once published an interview with "1985 alumnus li quan". this interview mentioned, "alumnus li quan picked up his mobile phone and showed us the wechat group of alumni from the class of 1985. he said that he was very happy to be able to keep in touch with his classmates through this modern communication method."

at the fork in the road of time

after graduating from pbc in 1988, li quan worked as a business manager in the banking department of china rural trust and investment corporation. here, he became colleagues with kang dian, who later served as the third chairman of xinhua insurance. kang dian was born in 1948 and was serving as the deputy general manager of china rural trust and investment corporation.

in 1990, their "unit" china rural trust and investment corporation ceased to exist and was merged into the national agricultural investment corporation. in january 1991, li quan left the system where he had worked for three years and went overseas. he joined the newly established foreign-funded enterprise zhengda international finance co., ltd.

in 1997, the asian financial crisis hit its peak. at the end of that year, the former securities commission of the state council promulgated the "interim measures for the administration of securities investment funds". in addition to the starting point of risk prevention, it also began to gradually build a compliance space for china's public fund business.

in july 1998, boshi fund was established, becoming one of the first five fund management companies established in the mainland. during the preparation period of boshi fund, li quan left zhengda in may 1998, joined boshi fund, and served as inspector general.

the next few years witnessed china's major restructuring of state-owned enterprises, a wave of listings, and a fund boom. during the historic bull market in 2007, bosera fund's asset management scale ranked second in the industry and became a leading company.

but with the advent of the bear market, the previous investment logic of "making money" is likely to instantly reverse to the logic of "losing money". in 2010, bosera fund suffered a loss of 8.627 billion yuan, ranking last in the industry. its "score" was a full 3 billion yuan more than the second-to-last one. at this time, the outside world generally questioned bosera fund's "misjudgment of the market direction" and believed that its "research and development capabilities" were insufficient.

li quan, who has joined since its inception, has "served as the leader of all departments of boshi except the general manager position." judging from the situation at that time, li quan, who was serving as the executive deputy general manager of boshi fund, not only had no hope of "rectifying the situation", but also the pressure from the outside world would inevitably be transmitted to him.

in december 2009, 62-year-old kang dian resigned from his position as chairman of the board of supervisors of shenzhen development bank and applied for a job at xinhua insurance, where he served as chairman, chief executive officer and chairman of xinhua asset management.

soon to the beginning of 2010, old colleague kang dian came together with li quan again.

at that time, he joined as an “asset management expert”

today, as one of the four major insurance companies under central huijin (china re group, new china insurance, zhonghui life, and china export credit insurance), new china insurance can be called a "state-owned enterprise" in insurance.

however, when new china insurance was established in 1996, the largest shareholder who initiated and held 37% of the shares was the new industry group composed of several companies including new industry investment co., ltd. li fuchen, the first chairman of xinhua insurance, was also appointed by the new industry department.

the new industry department is closely related to the famous tomorrow department. the latter was once considered the "important investor" of the new industry department, and was even accused of directly controlling new industry investment at one time.

however, for a long time after its establishment, new china insurance's shareholders changed rapidly. according to statistics, between 1999 and 2011, the equity of new china life was transferred more than 30 times, and the shareholders involved included:eastern group, zurich financial, international finance corporation, baosteel, insurance guarantee fund, north asia industrial, loncin group, zendai group, bozhi capital,cicc, nomura...

in 2009, central huijin acquired 38.815% of the shares of xinhua insurance from china insurance guarantee fund company at a price of 4.057 billion yuan, based on 8.71 yuan per share and a total valuation of 10.452 billion yuan, becoming its largest shareholder, thus winning the "huijin" has its own commercial insurance license.

after all, as a major shareholder of many commercial banks, huijin logically needs commercial insurance. but around 2010, xinhua insurance, which had just been taken over by central huijin, was at a crossroads, and the situation faced by kang dian was also quite difficult.

not only was the aftermath of the case of guan guoliang, the former chairman of xinhua life insurance, suspected of embezzlement and misappropriation of huge sums of money, which was known as "china's largest insurance case" at the time, still lingering. moreover, due to factors such as the "airborne landing" of the chairman, many senior executives including sun bing, the former president of xinhua insurance (who previously acted as chairman), the chief actuary, the director of the sales center, etc., left with their signatures.

at this time, kangdian needs a right-hand man, especially the insurance asset management business that is related to the "money bag" of the insurance company. although kang dian is also the chairman of xinhua asset management, he does not have deep experience in asset management investment. what's more, under the solvency pressure at the time, "making money" through xinhua asset management was one of the core solutions.

soon, in march 2010, "asset management expert" li quan left his post as deputy general manager of boshi fund and became president of xinhua asset management. after 20 years of "separation", kang dian and li quan became superiors and subordinates again.

in 2016, 68-year-old kang dian resigned as chairman of xinhua insurance. however, the successor is not li quan, but 58-year-old wan feng from china life. li quan is 53 years old this year. by the time he "takes over" as chairman, it will be seven years later, in 2023.

it took a long time to wait, but i didn’t sit in the seat for too long - more than four months.

core information sources:

1. website of the central commission for discipline inspection and the state supervision commission (https://www.ccdi.gov.cn)

2. new china insurance’s previous solvency reports (https://www.newchinalife.com/node/378?p0=28)