China’s banking crackdown picks up pace with probe into former Everbright chairman Li Xiaopeng
- Li Xiaopeng is suspected of ‘serious violations of discipline and law’, Chinese authorities said
- More than 30 state-owned firms are being investigated, including five financial firms, China’s anti-graft body said last week
Chinese authorities have launched an investigation into the former chairman and party chief of state-owned China Everbright Group, the latest sign that the country’s crackdown on corruption in the financial sector is picking up pace.
Li Xiaopeng is suspected of “serious violations of discipline and law”, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission said in a one-sentence statement.
The announcement came after the anti-graft body said last week it will start a fresh round of checks at more than 30 state-owned companies. As part of the inspection, they will also “look back” at five financial firms that had been previously targeted, including China Everbright Group.
China’s US$60 trillion finance industry is being rocked by a clampdown that has become its most extensive since beginning in late 2021. It comes amid a broader push to rein in risks in the sector as policymakers seek to restore growth, manage the economic fallout of frayed ties with the US and step up their charm offensive with foreign business and private industry.
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Authorities late last Friday warned top banking executives that the campaign is far from over, just as they were about to announce the probe of the most senior state banker in nearly two decades, Bloomberg News reported previously.