Ni Runfeng, the former chairman who led Changhong’s transformation from a military equipment maker into a major Chinese television manufacturer, died of illness on November 11, 2026, at age 82. The Paper reported his death on November 12, citing an announcement from Sichuan Changhong Electronic Holding Group.
Ni became director of the state-owned Changhong factory in Mianyang, Sichuan, in 1985. He steered it toward consumer electronics, importing a television production line from Japan and expanding colour-TV manufacturing. Changhong began shareholding reform in 1988 and listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1994.
Price cuts became a defining—and contested—part of Ni’s strategy. In a 2001 interview with Sichuan Daily, he defended price competition as a benefit to consumers, while expressing unease about the effects of an earlier price war on rival manufacturers and their workers. By 1997, Changhong’s annual sales revenue exceeded 18.8 billion yuan and net profit reached 2.7 billion yuan, according to The Paper.
The company later faced costly setbacks. A 1998 effort to secure supplies of colour picture tubes left it with substantial inventory after the purchasing plan fell short. Changhong also expanded exports through a credit-sales arrangement with US company APEX beginning in 2001. As risks around unpaid receivables emerged, Changhong made large bad-debt provisions; it recorded a loss of more than 3 billion yuan in 2004. Ni stepped down from his chairman and other company roles that July.
Ni was awarded China’s “Reform Pioneer” title in 2018. His career spanned both Changhong’s rapid expansion in China’s television market and the operating difficulties that followed.
