Former China Securities Regulator Probed Under Suspicion of Corruption

China’s former top securities regulator has been placed under investigation, according to the country’s anti-corruption agency, joining a series of high-ranking officials caught up in decade-long purges that showed little sign of abating.

Yi Huiman, who headed the China Securities Regulatory Commission for five years before stepping down in February 2024, is under investigation for suspected “serious violation of discipline and law,” the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said on Sept. 7.

The one-line statement on the CCDI’s website didn’t elaborate on the allegations against Yi. For the Chinese regime, discipline and law violations generally refer to corruption but can also be linked to other charges, such as disloyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The announcement follows a string of high-profile investigations launched by the CCDI this year, as the regime continued its efforts to root out alleged corruption and tighten its grip over individuals within the CCP and its military, the People’s Liberation Army.

Shortly after taking power as party leader in late 2012, Xi Jinping initiated a nationwide anti-graft campaign. Numerous officials—from “tigers” (senior officials) to “flies” (low-ranking members)—were investigated and persecuted. Some of Xi’s most powerful political rivals got life sentences for alleged corruption.

In recent years, even members within Xi’s inner circle have found themselves ensnared in Xi’s flagship campaign, sparking speculation about political infighting among party elites. Some well-connected analysts who recently spoke to The Epoch Times believe that Xi’s grip on power has waned amid the internal power struggles.

In a Sept. 6 statement, the securities regulatory commission expressed support for the decision to investigate its former chairman.

Yi, 60, spent more than 35 years working at China’s largest state-owned bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. He was promoted to the bank’s party chief and chairman in 2016, before taking on the role at the securities commission to govern the nation’s stock market three years later.

His last public appearance before the CCDI’s announcement was on July 29, when he attended a meeting organized by an economic committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the country’s top political advisory body, according to the official readout. Yi was sidelined to the role of deputy director of the economic body in June 2024.

Yi is not the first senior official in the securities sector caught in the CCP’s anti-graft purges. Yi’s immediate predecessor, Liu Shiyu, faced a similar investigation just four months after stepping down from the securities watchdog in January 2019. The CCDI later accused Liu of receiving gifts and misusing his power for personal gain. Considering that he “turned himself in” and had “a good attitude toward admitting wrongdoing,” authorities demoted him to a researcher rank without expelling him from the party, the CCDI said at the time.

Four years later, state media disclosed that Liu had been appointed as an adviser to the head office of the central bank.