Abstract:
“I will speak less and give young people more opportunities.” Dong Mingzhu, who promised to “decentralize power” last year, is taking action step by step. On September 16, Gree E-commerce Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Gree E-commerce") completed the industrial and commercial changes. Dong Mingzhu resigned as the legal representative and executive director, and Zhang Xinglei took over as the legal representative and served as the director and manager of the company's affairs.
Since 2025, Dong Mingzhu has stepped down from important positions such as legal representatives of at least four wholly-owned Gree subsidiaries, covering multiple business sectors such as e-commerce channels, chip research and development, electronic component manufacturing, and prepared vegetable equipment.
There are various signs that Dong Mingzhu, who is 72 years old this year, is accelerating the transfer of power in Gree Electric’s many businesses.
It is worth mentioning that on the same day when she resigned as the legal representative of Gree E-commerce, Dong Mingzhu also spent 380,000 yuan to increase her holdings of 10,000 Gree Electric shares. This was the first time in nine years that she publicly increased her holdings of Gree Electric shares through bidding transactions.
As of the close of trading on September 22, Gree Electric Appliances closed at 38.18 yuan per share, with a total market value of approximately 213.9 billion yuan.
Dong Mingzhu “delegates power” again, and Gree e-commerce welcomes a new helmsman
Tianyancha shows that on September 16, Gree E-commerce underwent industrial and commercial changes. Dong Mingzhu resigned as the legal representative and executive director, and Zhang Xinglei took over as the legal representative and served as the director and manager of the company's affairs.
It is reported that Gree E-commerce was registered and established in November 2019 and is wholly owned by Gree Electric Appliances. Its business scope includes: Internet sales, home appliance sales, software development, technical services, etc.
Currently, Gree e-commerce has accounts such as "Gree Dong Mingzhu Health Home" and "Gree Pearl Selection" on Douyin. As of press time, the number of fans of the two aforementioned accounts was 718,000 and 2.818 million respectively.
Gray Dolphin data shows that the sales of the two aforementioned live broadcast rooms in the past 30 days ranged from 1 million to 2.5 million and 5 million to 10 million respectively.
On the Weibo platform, Gree E-commerce also has two accounts under its name: "Gree Dong Mingzhu Store" and "Mingzhu Yutong Selection", but the homepages of these two accounts show: "The qualifications of this enterprise have not passed annual review."
It is not difficult to tell from the name that "Pearl Yutong Selection" is an account created by Gree for Dong Mingzhu and Meng Yutong, who was once regarded as Dong Mingzhu's successor.
Public information shows that in 2021, Meng Yutong was spotted by Dong Mingzhu through the workplace variety show "We Are New in the Workplace", and then joined Gree as his secretary. Dong Mingzhu once publicly stated that he wanted to "train Meng Yutong into the second Dong Mingzhu."
However, Meng Yutong, who had high hopes from Dong Mingzhu, left Gree less than two years after joining the company. At that time, there were many speculations about the estrangement between Dong Mingzhu and Meng Yutong.
However, in May 2025, Dong Mingzhu and Meng Yutong appeared together in the "Gree Pearl Selection" live broadcast room, breaking the doubts of the outside world.
Radar Finance noticed that in addition to the above-mentioned social media accounts, Gree e-commerce also has a number of Gree Apps, including Gree Online App, Gree Dong Mingzhu Store, retail distribution platform, etc.
Where did Zhang Xinglei come from when he took over Gree e-commerce?
Zhang Xinglei, who takes charge of Gree E-commerce’s legal representative and other positions this time, can be regarded as a senior veteran of Gree Electric Appliances.
According to the "List of Listing and Circulation List of Restricted Trading Shares" published by Gree Electric in 2008, Zhang Xinglei held 9,000 shares of the company at that time, accounting for 0.0011% of the total share capital.
The "2007 Equity Incentive List" released by Gree Electric in 2009 showed that Zhang Xinglei was a middle-level cadre of the company. At that time, he received 20,000 incentive shares, accounting for 0.1247% of the company's total share capital, and the subscription price was 4.494 yuan.
At the 2025 performance briefing held by Gree Electric on May 28 this year, Zhang Xinglei attended as the assistant to the president and made introductions on issues such as ice washing, household appliance sales and channel efficiency.
At that time, Zhang Xinglei said at an investor relations event that as of May 28 this year, Gree’s sales revenue of refrigerators, washing machines and household appliances had increased by more than 20% year-on-year.
In terms of channel efficiency, Zhang Xinglei introduced that Gree has formed a three-level intelligent logistics fulfillment network of "base warehouse + regional warehouse + front-end micro warehouse", shortening the circulation cycle by 20%, and reducing overall logistics costs by more than 100 million yuan in 2025; the company is also promoting the digitization of sales, terminals, contract fulfillment, services and other links.
In addition to Gree e-commerce, various signs also show that Zhang Xinglei is taking over Gree's sales channel system, gradually replacing Lu Luqun, the previous sales director of Gree Electric Appliances Business Department.
It is reported that in May 2024, Gree Electric Appliances established the Home Appliances Business Department, merging the functions and personnel of the Home Air Conditioning and Small Appliances Business Department, Refrigerator and Living Appliances Business Department, and appointed Lu Luqun as the sales director to be in charge of the Home Appliances Business Department.
Public information shows that Lu Luqun once worked for JD.com and had previously managed Gree's sales in Hebei, stabilizing the market after the original Hebei Gree Provincial Dai Xu spontaneously withdrew.
After 2024, Gree will intensively build a number of regional business entities - "Gree Digital Technology" companies in many places across the country. There will be close to 30 newly established regional "Gree Digital Technology" companies disclosed in the two annual reports of 2024 and 2025 alone.
The business scope of these companies generally includes household appliance sales, installation services, daily household appliance retail, Internet sales, etc.
Sohu Finance reported in early September that the legal representatives of nearly 30 "Gree Digital Technology" companies that previously had Lu Luqun as their legal representative have been gradually replaced by Zhang Xinglei.
According to Southern Metropolis Daily, industry insiders said that Zhang Xinglei, who was appointed to a key position in Gree e-commerce this time, has been responsible for related business operations in the Gree channel system for many years and is familiar with the traffic rules, user operations and supply chain collaboration logic of online channels.
Having him directly take charge of the e-commerce subsidiary means that the decision-making chain of Gree's online business will be further shortened, and the market response speed is expected to be accelerated.
Dong Mingzhu stepped down intensively, and Gree came under pressure overseas in the first half of the year
Radar Finance has noticed that in recent years, Dong Mingzhu has repeatedly released signals to cultivate successors.
As early as the 2024 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, Dong Mingzhu said: "I will speak less and give young people more opportunities."
At the 2025 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, Dong Mingzhu once again said why there are so many changes. It is that you must be able to go up and down, and find your own existence between "up" and "down", so that young teams can be brought out. She also made it clear that she wanted to cultivate a team of young people.
In February 2025, Dong Mingzhu and Yu Minhong revealed during a conversation on the program "See You": "The successor to Gree has been found, and there are three or four preliminary candidates."
In April of the same year, Gree Electric's extraordinary shareholders' meeting completed the board of directors' reelection, and Dong Mingzhu was elected chairman of the 13th board of directors, beginning his fifth three-year term in charge of Gree.
But what is different from before is that Dong Mingzhu no longer serves as the president of Gree Electric Appliances, and the position of president will be taken over by Zhang Wei.
This adjustment is regarded by the outside world as a landmark node for Gree's management iteration. The division of powers and responsibilities at the headquarters level will be adjusted first, and then gradually extended to each business subsidiary.
Soon, Gree Electric made intensive personnel adjustments at the subsidiary level.
In June 2025, Dong Mingzhu resigned as the legal representative and chairman of Zhuhai Zero Border Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd., and Li Shaobin, Vice President of Gree Electric Appliances, took over as the legal representative and served as manager and director of company affairs.
At the beginning of this year, Li Shaobin's position in the company was fully taken over by Fang Xiangjian.
In January 2026, Dong Mingzhu resigned as the legal representative and executive director of Zhuhai Gree Electronic Components Co., Ltd., and Fang Xiangjian, Vice President of Gree Electric Appliances, took over as the legal representative and director of company affairs.
In May, Dong Mingzhu resigned as the legal representative and executive director of Zhuhai Gree Prepared Vegetable Equipment Technology Development Co., Ltd., and Li Dequan took over as the legal representative, and served as manager and director of company affairs.
Including this change in Gree e-commerce, Dong Mingzhu has stepped down from important positions such as legal representatives of at least four Gree wholly-owned subsidiaries in the past year or so.
These subsidiaries cover multiple business sectors such as e-commerce channels, chip research and development, electronic component manufacturing, and prepared vegetable equipment, and are all wholly-owned by Gree Electric Appliances.
Tianyancha shows that currently, Dong Mingzhu still serves as the chairman of Gree Electric Appliances, and there are a total of 9 companies related to him that are in normal existence, and they are basically Gree companies. Among them, Dong Mingzhu holds the position of chairman of the board of directors in 5 companies.
While the management of many subsidiaries is undergoing a "replacement", Gree Electric's overall performance is facing phased adjustments.
In the first half of 2026, the company achieved total operating income of 89.673 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.14%; it recorded a net profit attributable to the parent company of 13.278 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.87%.
In terms of regions, the company's main domestic business revenue during the period was 72.512 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.9%, and the domestic market remained stable; however, the main export business revenue was 12.744 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 21.98%, and overseas markets were under obvious pressure.
In this regard, Gree Electric also bluntly stated in its semi-annual report that in foreign markets, affected by factors such as the external market environment and internal business strategies, the company's overseas performance has experienced a significant decline year-on-year.
However, Gree Electric emphasized that although the company's profit growth was hindered by multiple factors such as declining overseas sales and high raw material prices, the company continued to improve its operating quality by adjusting its business strategy, improving quality and efficiency, and market development, and achieved a steady increase in net profit margins.
According to Gree Electric, the company is committed to building a channel system that is independent and controllable, mutually beneficial and win-win, and integrates online and offline.
In terms of offline channels, the company has formed a physical network covering 30 regional sales companies, more than 20,000 sales stores, and more than 30,000 professional service outlets, and has completed the upgrade or renovation of more than a thousand "Dong Mingzhu Health Home" offline stores.
As for online channels, the company relies on its self-built platform, third-party e-commerce official flagship stores, and new media matrixes such as WeChat and Douyin to achieve multi-platform and wide-reach digital marketing coverage.
After a series of handovers and adjustments in subsidiaries, can Dong Mingzhu find a satisfactory successor for Gree? Radar Finance will continue to pay attention.
Comments