Yi Huiman, the previous regulator of China’s equities market, is being investigated for disciplinary breaches, because the nation’s long-standing anti-graft marketing campaign extends into all corners of the monetary business, from banking to the inventory market.
Yi, the chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Fee (CSRC) from January 2019 to February 2024, is being investigated by the Communist Occasion’s disciplinary unit for extreme breaches of self-discipline, in response to the Central Fee for Self-discipline Inspection, which didn’t elaborate on the main points of the investigation.
In China, the official language for suspected disciplinary breaches is also known as “financial crimes” within the statements introduced by the anti-graft physique. Yi’s probe was reported on Friday on Caixin.com, however the report was quickly deleted from its web site.
Do you might have questions in regards to the greatest subjects and developments from around the globe? Get the solutions with SCMP Data, our new platform of curated content material with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics dropped at you by our award-winning crew.
A statistician by coaching, Yi can be the second watchdog regulator of China’s US$12 trillion capital market – the world’s second largest – to be investigated for graft in a decade and the third to be fired since 2016.
Wu Qing, nicknamed the “Butcher of Brokers”, took over as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Fee (CSRC) in 2025 from Yi Huiman. Photograph: SCIO alt=Wu Qing, nicknamed the “Butcher of Brokers”, took over as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Fee (CSRC) in 2025 from Yi Huiman. Photograph: SCIO>
His quick predecessor Liu Shiyu was faraway from the job in 2019, earlier than investigations uncovered a spread of misconduct from accepting presents and cash to favouring inventory gross sales from his hometown in Jiangsu province. In 2016, Xiao Gang was fired for bungling the regulator’s response to a US$5 trillion market rout that occurred a 12 months earlier.
The crackdowns underscore how President Xi Jinping is making an attempt to wash up China’s monetary system after elevating the business right into a strategically vital sector for a “monetary superpower”, amid the heightened danger of monetary decoupling with the US amid deteriorating US-China relations. Virtually 300 Chinese language corporations valued at US$1.1 trillion listed on US inventory exchanges are poised to search out various itemizing venues amid the decoupling menace.
Yi was sacked after the A-share index plunged to a five-year low in 2024, which triggered a disaster of confidence among the many 200 million-odd particular person traders battered by fears a few shaky financial system and deteriorating company earnings. He was changed by Wu Qing, a former chairman of the Shanghai Inventory Trade and the manager vice mayor of town, in a reshuffle aimed toward restoring investor confidence.
Liu Shiyu, the previous chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Fee (CSRC), throughout a information convention on March 12, 2016. Liu was faraway from the job in 2019. Photograph: Reuters alt=Liu Shiyu, the previous chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Fee (CSRC), throughout a information convention on March 12, 2016. Liu was faraway from the job in 2019. Photograph: Reuters>
“The CSRC is greater than a securities watchdog in China as a result of it has lengthy been answerable for safeguarding the pursuits of small traders who put their lifelong financial savings within the inventory market,” mentioned Ding Haifeng, a guide on the monetary advisory agency Integrity in Shanghai. “Yi’s removing confirmed that he was not eligible for the job then.”
Yi, who turns 61 in December, has had an advisory position in authorities since he stepped down as regulator final 12 months. He was a deputy director of the financial committee of the Chinese language Folks’s Political Consultative Convention in Beijing, an advisory physique to the federal government.
Earlier than taking excessive monetary regulatory job from Liu, Yi was a profession banker. He labored his method up the ranks of the Industrial and Industrial Financial institution of China over three many years earlier than rising to president of the world’s largest financial institution by property in 2013. He was appointed the financial institution’s chairman in 2016, a job that carried the rank of a deputy Cupboard minister.
An outside digital display on the Lujiazui pedestrian overpass with the closing costs of the Shanghai Composite Index and the Shenzhen Element Index on August 18, 2025, in Shanghai. Photograph: Getty Photos alt=An outside digital display on the Lujiazui pedestrian overpass with the closing costs of the Shanghai Composite Index and the Shenzhen Element Index on August 18, 2025, in Shanghai. Photograph: Getty Photos>
Yi’s tenure as CSRC chairman coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic and China’s zero-Covid quarantines, which despatched the financial system right into a tailspin. Fundraising and investments by enterprise funds went right into a deep freeze, whereas onshore inventory gross sales slowed to a trickle in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Throughout Yi’s five-year tenure, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 9 per cent, lagging behind the 87 per cent bounce within the Dow Jones Industrial Common and the 103 per cent bounce within the S&P 500.
His greatest achievement was the CSRC’s overhaul of China’s course of for preliminary public choices (IPOs) right into a so-called registration course of that positioned the onus on corporations to reveal their funds. The reform, which simplified the approvals and was extra aligned with international practices, was nonetheless blamed for flooding the capital markets with a glut of latest shares.
The previous chairman additionally led the institution of the Star Market, China’s reply to the Nasdaq, on the Shanghai Inventory Trade in June 2019, simply seven months after it was ordered to be arrange by President Xi.
A Wenzhou native in jap China’s Zhejiang province, Yi additionally coined the time period “valuation with Chinese language traits”, which advocated for investing in publicly traded state-owned enterprises that normally traded at a reduction to inventory costs.
