Ding Xiangqun appointed Party Secretary of China's Financial Regulatory Administration, replacing Li Yunze

Li Yunze, the former Party Secretary and Director of China's National Financial Regulatory Administration, was reportedly demoted at the end of April due to family issues. Today, officials announced that Ding Xiangqun, Chair of the People's Insurance Company of China (PICC), will succeed him. According to reports from The Paper and Sing Tao Daily, officials from the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee attended a leadership meeting of the National Financial Regulatory Administration on the afternoon of the 29th to announce the Central Committee's decision to appoint Ding Xiangqun as the Party Secretary of the administration. Public records show that Ding Xiangqun was born in June 1965 in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province. She graduated from Renmin University of China with a major in Monetary Banking, holds a Master's degree in Economics, and is a senior economist. In October 2024, she became the Party Secretary of PICC, and in December of the same year, she was approved as Chair, becoming the first female head since the company's founding. She also serves as Chair of PICC Property and Casualty and is a member of the 20th CPC Central Committee. According to Ming Pao, Li Yunze's name was suddenly removed from the official website of the Financial Regulatory Administration on April 29. It was subsequently reported that he was demoted to a first-level inspector (a non-leadership position at the bureau level) for allegedly helping his son cover up a drunk or drugged driving incident. In 2023, Beijing established the Financial Regulatory Administration to unify the supervision of the financial industry, excluding the securities sector, with Li Yunze serving as its first director.