In the hallowed halls of Renmin University of China, a scene of corporate dissonance unfolded this week that perfectly encapsulates the anxieties of China’s shrinking middle class and the volatility of its tech elite. Zhang Xiaolong, the outspoken CEO of Fenbi—one of the country’s largest providers of civil service exam training—was invited to deliver a career planning lecture to some of the nation's brightest students. Instead of offering professional guidance for the bureaucracy, Zhang pivoted to a lecture on ‘Career Planning in the AI Era,’ punctuated by a startling admission of personal wealth that has since backfired.
During the talk, Zhang dismissed traditional career paths, suggesting that the most promising employment direction in the current economy is professional stock trading. To illustrate his point, he ‘flexed’ his recent financial success, claiming he had earned 53 million yuan ($7.3 million) in a single month by investing his 8000-million-yuan cash pile into technology stocks, specifically targeting the U.S. market. When the audience of debt-conscious students met his bragging with a cold silence, Zhang reportedly lost his composure, adopting a confrontational tone that eventually forced a formal public apology from the company on June 4.
The irony of Zhang’s stock-market bravado was not lost on investors. While Zhang may be profiting personally, Fenbi’s corporate valuation has been in free-fall, plummeting from a peak of 33.6 billion HKD shortly after its listing to a mere 1.4 billion HKD today. This 95% erosion in market value highlights the deep systemic pressures facing the 'Gongkao' (civil service exam) industry, which was once considered a recession-proof sector in China’s education landscape.
Financial reports for 2025 reveal a company in the throes of a painful identity shift. Fenbi’s revenue and net profits have declined for two consecutive years, with the core training service segment shrinking as low-cost competitors flood the market. Despite record numbers of Chinese graduates competing for the ‘iron rice bowl’ of government jobs, their willingness to pay for premium training is evaporating, forcing Fenbi to aggressively slash costs. The company’s headcount has been gutted, dropping from nearly 9,000 employees in 2021 to approximately 7,000, with full-time human instructors bearing the brunt of the cuts.
Fenbi is now betting its survival on an ‘AI-first’ strategy, attempting to replace expensive human tutors with algorithmic interview coaching and automated question banks. While these AI tools have seen high adoption rates among cost-conscious students, they represent a high-stakes gamble. Zhang’s recent outburst at Renmin University suggests a leader who is increasingly disconnected from the very demographic he serves, casting a shadow over Fenbi’s transition from a human-centric education provider to an AI-driven utility.