PICC Group

The People’s Insurance Company (Group) of China Limited (PICC for short) is a major Chinese insurance group. In January 2017, Wang Yincheng, then president of PICC Group, was taken away for investigation, leaving the post of president vacant. In April 2017, Miao Jianmin, former president of China Life Group, took over as deputy Party secretary and president of PICC Group; in November of the same year, Wu Yan, former Party secretary and chairman of PICC Group, was transferred to become vice chairman of the National Council for Social Security Fund, and Miao Jianmin took over as Party secretary and chairman, while the post of president remained vacant. On May 24, 2018, the Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court in Fujian Province delivered its first-instance verdict in Wang Yincheng’s bribery case: the court found that from 2006 to 2016 he had taken advantage of his positions as Party committee member, vice president, Party secretary and president of PICC Property and Casualty and as deputy Party secretary and president of PICC Group to help relevant entities and individuals in matters such as winning construction contracts, job promotions and employment of children, and had illegally accepted money and property, directly or through close relatives, worth a total of about 8.7 million yuan; he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for bribery and fined 1 million yuan, and his bribes and the proceeds from them were to be recovered and turned over to the state treasury.

On 5 June 2018, PICC Group’s application for an A-share initial public offering was approved, making it the fifth insurer in mainland China to list in “A+H” form. According to the prospectus, in 2017 the group’s insurance business revenue was 476.444 billion yuan and its net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent was 16.1 billion yuan, up 13% year on year; at the end of that year its total assets were 987.973 billion yuan and net assets 185.959 billion yuan; its subsidiary PICC P&C held 33.1% of the property insurance market. By insurance business revenue and net profit, PICC Group ranked behind only China Life and Ping An in the industry. In the same year, Bai Tao, former deputy general manager of China Investment Corporation, became president of PICC Group, filling the vacancy.

In July 2020, Miao Jianmin, who had led PICC Group for two and a half years, moved to China Merchants Group Limited as chairman. According to Caixin, on July 10, 2020, Miao Jianmin was “parachuted” into China Merchants Group, succeeding Li Jianhong as chairman and also serving as chairman of China Merchants Bank. In September of the same year, Luo Xi moved to PICC Group and became group chairman in December. After taking up his post at PICC, Luo Xi carried out vigorous reforms in organisational structure and personnel: on September 15, 2020, PICC’s official WeChat account was renamed from “PICC China People’s Insurance” to “People’s Insurance”; in November of the same year, the group established its “Excellent Insurance Strategy”; and in June 2021 it adopted a new logo incorporating a seal-style graphic combining the characters “zhong” and “bao”. At the March 2021 results briefing, Luo Xi set the goals of ranking among the top five in operating revenue among comparable global insurers and reaching first place globally in the main property insurance indicators by 2025, and of entering the top three in operating revenue and ranking first globally in all property insurance indicators by 2035, and laid out implementation in five areas: aligning annual budgets with strategic planning, designing 42 strategic projects, promoting technology empowerment, improving corporate governance and cultural transformation.

In January 2021, PICC launched a technology reform. In July 2022, Zhang Jinhai, general manager of the group’s technology operations department and president of PICC Technology, was promoted to member of the group’s Party committee and nominated as vice president. PICC P&C also introduced a reform programme known as the “Sanwan Reorganisation”. In the first half of 2022, PICC Group’s premium income and net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent rose 11.2% and 5.7% year on year respectively; then group president Wang Tingke said that this reflected both the industry-wide recovery following the comprehensive reform of the property insurance sector and PICC’s clear comparative advantages, but that the fundamental reason was the implementation of its strategy of building an excellent insurer.

On January 29, 2023, PICC Life, a subsidiary of PICC Group, issued a notice requiring all cadres and employees to study, memorise and recite a collection of “golden sayings” conveyed by chairman Luo Xi at the first-quarter sales kick-off meeting. According to a person close to PICC speaking to Caixin, the notice arose because Luo Xi, during a local inspection tour, had asked the head of the local life insurance operation about his business approach and did not receive a satisfactory answer. The content spread through self-media on February 4 and was criticised by CCTV as a typical example of the unhealthy practice of “flattering” leaders in central state-owned enterprises, and PICC Life rescinded the notice overnight. On the afternoon of February 17, 2023, PICC Group held an enlarged Party committee meeting at which a responsible official of the relevant cadre bureau of the Central Organisation Department, delegated by the department’s leadership, announced the central decision to remove Luo Xi from the post of Party secretary of the group. According to Caixin, a number of people in the industry, including at PICC, believed the trigger for this personnel decision was the “golden sayings controversy”.