China's Private Finance Legend, Anbang Insurance Liquidation

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[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Jo Young-shin] Anbang Insurance, a Chinese company that once played a major role in the global insurance market by acquiring Korea's Dongyang Life Insurance and Allianz Life Insurance (now ABL Life Insurance), has entered the liquidation process.

Anbang Insurance announced on the night of the 14th through its official website that it held a shareholders' meeting that day and decided to liquidate the corporation. It added that it plans to formally submit a dissolution application to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission soon.

Founded in 2004 by Wu Xiaohui, the grandson-in-law of Deng Xiaoping, Anbang Insurance was a rapidly growing private financial company with assets reaching 2 trillion yuan (approximately 348 trillion KRW) at its peak.

China Anbang Insurance (Anbang Baoxian)

Anbang Insurance's rapid growth stopped in 2017. The company's success story collapsed when former chairman Wu was arrested by Chinese authorities on corruption charges. Wu was sentenced to 18 years in prison for fundraising fraud and abuse of power and is currently serving his sentence. Personal assets worth over 1 trillion KRW were confiscated.

The liquidation of Anbang Insurance was already a foreseen step. Chinese financial authorities took over the management rights of the private company Anbang Insurance for two years and exercised control on its behalf.

During this period, the major assets of Anbang Insurance and its affiliates were transferred to a new corporation called Dajia Insurance, which was established with investments from major large state-owned enterprises.

Following Wu’s arrest, there was widespread speculation both inside and outside China about the background of the case.

While some analyses suggested that the strong crackdown on Anbang Insurance was a preemptive measure to resolve financial risks, some Chinese-language media interpreted that President Xi Jinping dismantled Anbang Insurance to curb the influence of the "Princelings" (the group of children of revolutionary elders) excluding himself.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.