China Pacific Insurance Group has announced that its property insurance subsidiary, China Pacific P&C Insurance, has terminated an agreement to set up a general insurance joint venture in China.

China Pacific P&C Insurance reached agreement with Baidu Penghuan Asset Management (Beijing), a subsidiary of the giant Chinese search engine company Baidu, to end the joint venture agreement which was signed in June 2016.

The reason cited for aborting the venture is that their application for an insurance licence for the joint venture had yet to be approved by the CBIRC. No concrete work had been started on establishing the insurance venture.

Meanwhile, Baidu has already entered the Chinese insurance arena.

In September 2017, Baidu obtained a national insurance brokerage licence through its subidiary Baidu Penghuan Asset Management (Beijing) which purchased a 100% stake in Heilongjiang Lianbao Longjiang Insurance Agency.

In November 2015, Baidu announced a tie-up with global insurer Allianz and Asian investor Hillhouse Capital Group to establish a nationwide digital non-life insurance company in China. Baidu has also set up its online insurance platform.

No new insurance licence has been granted by the CBIRC since February 2017 as the regulator has been cracking down on poor governance and high risk operations in the insurance sector.