Wang Shi Is Restricted, Yu Liang Falls Into Disorder, Zhu Xu Seeks Back Pay: The End and Liquidation of Vanke’s Professional Managers Era丨【Deep Thinking】

(Source: Investor Network - Thinking Finance)

In March 2026, Vanke continuously released major news, stirring the entire capital market and real estate industry. According to multiple authoritative sources and regulatory updates: Vanke founder Wang Shi, due to responsibilities related to the company’s historical operations and governance, has been subject to actual exit restrictions, and his attendance at the United Nations Climate Conference for 16 consecutive years has been completely interrupted; former Chairman Yu Liang, after reaching retirement age in January 2026, is under actual operational restrictions, has not appeared publicly, and all related work and social activities have been fully halted; former Secretary of the Board and top A-share secretary Zhu Xu was officially required to refund all salary and performance bonuses received from 2021 to 2024, involving nearly 131.48B yuan; meanwhile, former President Zhu Jiusheng was subjected to criminal coercive measures in October 2025, and former Chairman Xin Jie was taken away for investigation just nine months after taking office. High-level executives and project leaders across multiple regions including Shenzhen, Sichuan, and Yunnan, involved in Vanke’s regional operations, have been involved in cases one after another. A comprehensive accountability storm targeting Vanke’s professional management team has officially taken hold.

This company, once hailed as a benchmark for Chinese real estate enterprises and a model of corporate governance on the A-share market, has fallen from industry top-tier to a predicament of billion-yuan losses and governance collapse within just a few years. The professional manager model pioneered and inherited by Wang Shi and Yu Liang has come to an end in such a tragic manner.

01

Zhu Xu: From the Legend of the Bao-Wan Dispute to the Reversal of Nearly 49.48B Yuan in Salary Recovery

Zhu Xu’s career trajectory is the most representative microcosm of Vanke’s professional manager era. Her highlights and downfall are deeply intertwined with Vanke’s fate.

In 2016, Vanke was embroiled in the Bao-Wan dispute, with a fierce battle over equity, and management control was on the brink of collapse. Zhu Xu was entrusted with the role of company secretary. At that time, a vote on restructuring involving the introduction of Shenzhen Metro became a critical battle for the company’s survival. After 11 directors voted, 7 approved, 3 opposed, and 1 abstained, failing to reach the two-thirds approval threshold required by law. The scene fell into dead silence, and Vanke’s management was about to lose control.

At this moment, the abstaining independent director admitted to having a conflict of interest. Relying on her many years of expertise in capital markets, Zhu Xu precisely grasped the core of the rules, calmly proposed that the independent director should recuse himself from voting rather than abstain, instantly changing the voting base. The number of effective votes dropped from 11 to 10, and with 7 votes in favor, just crossing the two-thirds threshold, the restructuring plan was narrowly approved, turning the tide for Vanke and securing a critical turning point for the company’s control. This move made Zhu Xu legendary, recognized as a top secretary in the A-share market. She remained the “most expensive female secretary” for many years, earning over 40k yuan in salary, bonuses, and incentives from 2021 to 2024, setting a benchmark for high salaries among professional managers.

However, no one expected that this defender of rules, who rose to fame, would ultimately be fully clawed back for her entire four-year salary due to governance disorder and performance collapse at Vanke. From her pivotal role in the Bao-Wan dispute to the current nearly 100 million yuan salary recovery, Zhu Xu’s fate reversal vividly illustrates the entire process of Vanke’s professional management team shifting from role-responsibility misalignment to responsibility accountability.

02

Yu Liang and Core Executives: From Leaders to Disorder, the Harsh Reality of Full Accountability

Yu Liang, as the successor to Wang Shi and the helmsman of Vanke, inherited the core of the professional manager model and became the central figure in this accountability storm.

After Wang Shi stepped back, Yu Liang led Vanke for many years, maintaining its position as a leading real estate enterprise and maximizing the advantages of the professional manager system. At that time, Vanke’s management was clear in responsibilities, efficient in operations, and a model for the entire industry. But as the real estate sector declined, Vanke’s strategic decisions became increasingly flawed. Under Yu Liang’s leadership, management gradually fell into a dilemma of high salaries disconnected from performance, and personal interests separated from shareholder interests. In 2024, Vanke suffered its first major loss in 34 years of listing, with losses expanding further in 2025, totaling over 100 billion yuan in two years. Yet, the core management still received sky-high salaries, exposing a severe imbalance of authority and responsibility within the professional management team.

Now, Yu Liang’s retirement and restricted actions signal the disorder within Vanke’s professional management team. The criminal detention of former President Zhu Jiusheng and investigation of former Chairman Xin Jie further shattered the core management of the group. Extending downward, former General Manager Zhang Haitao of Shenzhen Vanke was sentenced for bribery, former Chairman Cheng Lindong of Sichuan Vanke was involved in a case and sentenced, and over ten regional and project executives including former General Manager Wang Runchuan of Yunnan Vanke and Zhang Yong, General Manager of Shenzhen Zhen Shan Fu project, have been investigated. From top leaders to frontline managers, involvement spans the entire chain, exposing the long-standing governance disorder and利益绑架 hidden within Vanke’s professional management team.

03

Shenzhen Metro’s Entry: From White Knight to Takeover, Trillions of Yuan in Funds Struggling to Reverse the Decline

In 2017, Shenzhen Metro invested 66.4 billion yuan to acquire Vanke, ending the Bao-Wan dispute as a “white knight,” promising only financial investment without interfering in daily operations, thus becoming a guardian of Vanke’s professional manager model.

But this balance was ultimately broken by Vanke’s continued decline. After Shenzhen Metro’s involvement, it did not immediately change Vanke’s governance structure, still allowing the professional management team to operate freely. However, Vanke’s performance continued to slide, plunging into a trillion-yuan loss. As of March 2026, Vanke’s A-share market value was only about 52 billion yuan, and the accumulated losses in 2024-2025 reached 131.478 billion yuan—more than 2.5 times the current market value. In 2024, Vanke’s net loss attributable to shareholders was 49.478 billion yuan; in 2025, an estimated loss of 82 billion yuan, with daily losses exceeding 220 million yuan, setting a record for losses among A-share real estate companies.

Behind the financial collapse was a complete liquidity crunch. By the end of Q3 2025, Vanke’s interest-bearing debt reached 362.9 billion yuan, with short-term debt due within one year totaling 155.4 billion yuan, while cash on hand was only 65.7 billion yuan. The cash short-term debt ratio was merely 0.43, with a funding gap of over 90 billion yuan. The asset-liability ratio rose to 73.51%, and gross profit margin from development dropped to 2.0%, almost unprofitable.

Faced with life-and-death crisis, Shenzhen Metro had to shift from an investor to a “rescuer.” By early 2026, it had provided over 31.4 billion yuan in low-interest loans (interest rate as low as 2.34%) mainly for debt repayment and delivery assurance, even pledging 57% of its stake in Vanke’s top asset, Wanyun Cloud, to enhance credit. But in the face of trillion-yuan losses and debt, Shenzhen Metro’s support was merely a drop in the bucket. It could only passively take over, with senior executives of Shenzhen Metro fully entering the core decision-making layer, completely replacing the original professional management team. The long-standing autonomous management model built by Wang Shi was entirely lost.

04

Vanke’s Buildings Remain, but Governance Collapse Is Unavoidable

Walking through Vanke communities and projects in major cities across the country, one can still feel the quality of this old real estate enterprise: in Shanghai, Vanke’s neighborhoods are well-maintained with orderly landscaping; in Shenzhen, the Vanke headquarters building stands in the CBD core area with spotless glass curtain walls; in Guangzhou and Hangzhou, delivered Vanke projects still represent regional quality.

But the buildings remain, while personnel have changed entirely. Inside Shenzhen Vanke’s headquarters, the offices of former core executives have long been replaced, with fewer hurried footsteps of professional managers and more silence; at various Vanke project sites, construction has not stopped, but the once vibrant enthusiasm is missing. Employees and owners, in casual conversations, often lament the company’s upheaval. The high-quality projects built by Vanke’s professional management team still stand in the city, but the teams that created them have fallen into accountability and responsibility issues, forming a stark contrast.

This scene of desolation is a true reflection of the end of Vanke’s professional manager era: the physical buildings remain, but the governance foundation supporting the enterprise has completely collapsed. The once-proud professional management system, under the lack of effective constraints and severe misalignment of interests and responsibilities, ultimately dragged down this industry giant.

05

Final Settlement: The Return of Responsibility and Authority, and the Complete End of an Era

Vanke’s full-level accountability this time is not merely personnel changes but a thorough liquidation of the high-salary, responsibility-misaligned model of professional managers. It also signifies a redefinition of corporate governance logic by the capital market and the real estate industry.

For a long time, Vanke’s professional management team received top industry salaries but ignored shareholder interests in decision-making, blindly expanded, and engaged in off-balance-sheet operations, creating hidden利益通道 like Pengjin Exchange, putting personal利益 above the company and shareholders. When performance rose, management shared high salaries and incentives; when performance collapsed, the company, shareholders, and even all employees bore the consequences. This distorted governance model was destined to end.

The recovery of Zhu Xu’s nearly 100 million yuan salary, Yu Liang’s restricted actions, and the involvement of senior executives like Zhu Jiusheng and Xin Jie mark the definitive end of Vanke’s professional manager era. After Shenzhen Metro’s full takeover, Vanke has implemented a new governance and compensation system, breaking the previous high-salary, no-responsibility model, and tightly linking performance with pay, responsibility with authority, returning to the essence of corporate governance.

This upheaval at Vanke sounds an alarm to the entire capital market: any power divorced from responsibility constraints and any high salary divorced from performance cannot last long. The professional manager era initiated by Wang Shi, once a benchmark for Chinese corporate governance, has ended due to imbalance of responsibilities and interests. This is not only the rise and fall of a company but also a profound lesson in the maturing of Chinese corporate governance and the full return of the responsibility-and-authority concept. The silent buildings of Vanke witness the glory of an era and also engrave the lessons of its demise.

(This article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. The market carries risks; invest cautiously.)