Fund Manager Advice: CPIC Allianz Swap and Performance Reflection
The insurance-backed fund company CPIC Allianz has changed its general manager. On June 23, the company announced that General Manager He Hua was stepping down due to work arrangements, and Liu Zhongjiang would take over. Liu Zhongjiang previously served as General Manager of the direct investment department and General Manager of the fixed-income investment department at the major shareholder China Life.
He Hua, who stepped down, had served as general manager since January 2023, for a little over three years. Before becoming general manager of CPIC Allianz, he was the head of China Life’s equity investment department.
On the company’s homepage, the slogan reads, “Stay true to our original aspiration for 12 years, and repay every bit of trust.” However, actual operating results over the past three years have been hard to call satisfactory. As of the end of Q1 this year, non-money-market fund assets stood at 181.8 billion yuan, ranking 30th in the industry. The fund mix is mainly bond funds, with equity funds making up only a small portion. Specifically, stock funds are about 10 billion yuan and mixed funds about 5.6 billion yuan.
As the former head of China Life’s equity department, during He Hua’s three-year-plus tenure, CPIC Allianz’s equity fund scale did not rise overall—in fact, it fell. Mixed funds, in particular, dropped by as much as 50%.
Weak equity performance and shrinking scale
During He Hua’s tenure as general manager, CPIC Allianz’s equity funds not only underperformed and shrank in scale, but internal controls also exposed significant loopholes one after another.
In August 2025, an administrative penalty document from the Tianjin securities regulator showed that fund manager Li Dan was penalized for rat trading.
Earlier, in December 2023, an administrative penalty document from the Beijing securities regulator showed that Hu Wenbiao, general manager of the company’s special account investment department, was penalized for illegal stock speculation and market manipulation.
Despite these issues, that did not prevent He Hua from returning to the major shareholder and being further promoted into the leadership layer. According to reports, CPIC Allianz’s day-to-day work is burdened by excessive meetings and paperwork. In the company’s evaluation system, the requirement to make money for fund holders has not been placed where it should be, which is far off from the CSRC’s high-quality development requirements.
Lack of marketization and international capability
Over the past three years or so, the major shareholder has sent many people into the company to occupy key positions, while the hardest and most demanding work has still been hired from the market. This has caused the company’s degree of marketization to drop sharply, and its investment research and sales capabilities to become seriously insufficient.
Before 2023, CPIC Allianz was not like this. At that time, the company’s marketization level was still relatively high. Its first general manager, Zuo Jiqing, was relatively firm in upholding principles and protecting corporate governance.
Reviewing the development path and management orientation
CPIC Allianz was founded in October 2013 by China Life Asset’s fixed-income department head Zuo Jiqing, risk management and compliance deputy general manager (acting) Shen Mengyu, and others.
After its establishment, CPIC Allianz spent 10 years growing from nothing into a mid-sized fund company. By the end of 2022, its non-money-market fund assets reached 128.5 billion yuan, ranking 31st in the industry. Stock funds were about 7.6 billion yuan and mixed funds about 12.8 billion yuan.
At that time, the company had a relatively high bar for professionalism, and management roles were mainly recruited from the market, giving it strong competitiveness.
But after the company grew its asset base, someone from the major shareholder side began eyeing important roles and wanted appointments through assignment. Zuo Jiqing was unwilling to cooperate with this unreasonable request and at one point endured huge pressure.
In January 2023, company general manager Zuo Jiqing, chief supervisor Shen Mengyu, and fixed-income investment director Dong Ruiqian all left for “personal reasons.” After Changning State-owned Assets took control of Chundu Fund, in January 2026 Zuo Jiqing and Shen Mengyu became general manager and deputy general manager of Chundu Fund, respectively.
The operating demand that “development is the hard truth”
Over the past three years or so, CPIC Allianz’s halo has shattered, He Hua and others have lived a butterfly dream, while the founding generation like Zuo Jiqing and Shen Mengyu have gone through a phoenix-like rebirth.
In the story of Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly, when he wakes up he still clearly knows he is Zhuang Zhou. In real life, some people cannot distinguish dream from reality; some state-owned enterprise cadres cannot, after years in corporate roles, transform into competent business operators, and remain trapped in a butterfly dream for a long time.
The article hopes CPIC Allianz will seriously study and understand the meaning and essence of “development is the hard truth,” focus hard on operations, let performance speak, and get rid of formalism. The company should quickly return to a market-oriented and international development track, avoid deceiving superiors and subordinates, and avoid delaying opportunities. The management team should truly devote its energy to work, ensure the state capital invested by the major shareholder preserves and grows value, and help fund holders earn good returns.
