Shenzhen Metro Group’s Party Secretary and Chairman, as well as Chairman of Vanke Group, Xin Jie, has been missing for 24 days. It is reported that on September 18, he was taken away from a meeting, shocking the Chinese real estate industry. In January of this year, Xin Jie took over as Chairman of Vanke Group, seen as the “firefighter” sent by Shenzhen State-owned Enterprises to Vanke.
On October 11, mainland self-media outlets extensively reported Xin Jie’s disappearance. According to reports from “Tu Lou Research Institute” and other self-media outlets, Xin Jie was taken away for investigation during a meeting in Shenzhen on September 18 and has remained missing ever since.
Financial headline author “Li Dan Fintalk” stated in a post that despite the backdrop of the “clean-up operation,” these self-media articles can still be circulated and preserved, indicating that the news has been officially “verified” and is not a rumor.
On October 12, real estate and financial media in mainland China, such as Sina Finance, also reported on this matter.
As of now, both Shenzhen Metro and Vanke have not responded, and Vanke’s official website still retains Xin Jie’s position information. However, observers have noticed that the Shenzhen luxury hotel project, Shengting Garden Hotel, which Xin Jie was in charge of developing, suddenly changed its name to Intercontinental Hotel last month.
According to publicly available information, Xin Jie’s last appearance was at the Vanke Shareholders’ Meeting on June 27, where he mentioned that the integration between Shenzhen Metro and Vanke would achieve a synergy of “1+1>2.”
On January 27, Xin Jie officially took over as Chairman of Vanke. At that time, Vanke experienced a historic huge loss. According to Vanke’s announcement, it is expected to incur a net loss of about 45 billion yuan belonging to the shareholders of the listed company in 2024. Yu Liang resigned as Chairman of the Vanke Board, while Zhu Jiusheng stepped down from the positions of President, CEO, and others.
After taking over, Xin Jie formed a new executive team for Vanke, most of whom were his subordinates from Tianjian Group and Shenzhen Metro Group. As the largest shareholder of Vanke, Shenzhen Metro Group continued to provide “blood transfusions” to Vanke.
In 2025, Shenzhen Metro Group provided Vanke with multiple loan supports and promoted organizational restructuring within Vanke. Xin Jie was seen as the “firefighter” sent by Shenzhen State-owned Enterprises to Vanke.
As of August 5, 2025, Shenzhen Metro Group had provided loans to Vanke amounting to 25.941 billion yuan, and had repeatedly offered financial support at rates below the market. In addition to direct loans, Shenzhen Metro also supported Vanke through the acquisition of project income rights.
However, with the rapid decline in the Chinese real estate market, Vanke, despite continued blood transfusions from its major shareholders, still faced a heavy debt structure.
In the first half of the year, Vanke achieved a revenue of 105.32 billion yuan, a decrease of 26.23% from the previous year; with a net loss of approximately 11.95 billion yuan and net cash outflow from operating activities of about 3.039 billion yuan. As of June 30, Vanke’s total debt reached 872.988 billion yuan, with an asset-liability ratio of 73.11%, and a net debt ratio of 90.38%.
However, Shenzhen Metro Group’s own operations also faced tremendous challenges. The financial report for the first half of the year showed that Shenzhen Metro Group’s revenue decreased by 21.67% compared to the previous year, with a net loss of about 3.36 billion yuan. For two consecutive years, it suffered significant losses. As of the end of June, Shenzhen Metro’s total debt was 479.62 billion yuan, and the asset-liability ratio rose to 60.46%.
At the same time, Shenzhen Metro Group’s ongoing projects, including 17 railway lines and Xili Hub, require continuous financial investment.
As for the reasons why Xin Jie was taken away, there are various speculations.
The market generally believes that Xin Jie’s investigation is probably not related to his oversight of Vanke’s operations after taking over. Since he took full control of Vanke for a short period, it is difficult for him to have deep-seated business relationships that could trigger an investigation. More speculations point to his work experience during his tenure in the State-owned Enterprises system or being linked to other related investigations. Before the incident, there was a significant personnel change in Northwest China, which is said to be related to Xin Jie.
It’s worth noting that on July 21, the Eighth Inspection Team of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Second Inspection Team of the Guangdong Provincial Committee held a mobilization meeting in Shenzhen for a joint inspection lasting two and a half months. As one of the vice-provincial-level cities subject to this coordinated inspection, Shenzhen would undergo a comprehensive review process.
Publicly available information shows that Xin Jie was born in 1966 and worked in the Shenzhen State-owned Enterprises system for over twenty years. Starting from the Shenzhen Foreign Trade Group, he successively led Shenzhen Shengting Garden Hotel, Great Wall Investment, Tianjian Group, and in 2017 was appointed as Chairman of Shenzhen Metro Group.