China Insurance Chairman Receives Death Sentence Amid Financial Crackdown

Wang Bin, the former chairman of China Life Insurance, has been handed a death sentence with a two-year reprieve as part of Beijing’s ongoing crackdown on the financial sector.

According to a court ruling obtained by the BBC, after the two-year reprieve, the sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

The Jinan court in China’s Shandong province found Wang guilty of accepting 325 million yuan ($44.6 million) in bribes. Additionally, he was sentenced to one year in prison for unlawfully concealing 54.2 million yuan in overseas accounts.

Wang Bin is the latest high-profile figure from a major Chinese financial institution to be ensnared in President Xi Jinping’s extensive two-year campaign against corruption in the industry, which encompasses a staggering $60 trillion.

In 2021, Lai Xiaomin, the former chairman of Huarong, one of China’s largest state-controlled asset management firms, was executed after being convicted of corruption and bigamy. That same year, former China Development Bank chairman Hu Huaibang received a life sentence in an 85.5 million yuan bribery case.

Bao Fan, a prominent billionaire banker and CEO of China Renaissance Holdings, has been cooperating in an investigation since his disappearance in February this year.

An investigation into Bank of China’s party chief, Liu Liange, was initiated in March. He is suspected of “serious violations of discipline and law,” according to authorities.

In April, authorities announced an investigation into Li Xiaopeng, the former chairman of the state-owned asset management firm China Everbright Group.

Fan Yifei, a deputy governor of China’s central bank, was arrested for suspected bribery in June and is currently under a criminal investigation. He has also been expelled from the Communist Party.