China’s former market regulator chief to stand trial for graft

The former head of China’s financial markets regulator will be tried for corruption, according to state media Wednesday, the latest high-profile official to fall under Beijing’s sweeping anti-graft campaign.

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced that an investigation into Yi Huiman had concluded and the case referred to a court in Qingdao for trial, official state news agency Xinhua reported.

Yi, who is currently in custody, is one of countless officials who have fallen foul of an anti-corruption campaign waged at all levels of the state and party since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

He is accused of abusing his various positions — as chairman of the Securities Regulatory Commission as well as in the banking sector — to accept “exceptionally large” bribes, to “secure benefits for others”, and of unlawfully accepting “property from others”, Xinhua said.

“He should therefore be held criminally liable for the offence of accepting bribes,” it added.

Yi chaired the China Securities Regulatory Commission from 2019 to 2024, when he was removed from office.

His tenure was mired by several difficult months on the financial markets and a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

Anti-corruption agencies announced in September 2025 that he was under investigation.

The Commission’s former vice-chairman, Yao Gang, was sentenced in 2018 to 18 years in prison for insider dealing and corruption.

China’s military has also faced a purge of top officials — including the country’s highest-ranking general — who are under investigation on corruption allegations.

Two former defence ministers were handed suspended death sentences earlier this year after being found guilty on corruption charges.