Setting the tone for the next five years, China Life Insurance unveils its "Stepping Up" roadmap

(Source: Beijing Business Today)

Connecting Beijing and Hong Kong, China Life Insurance Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as “China Life”) held its annual performance release on March 26 as scheduled. In the just-concluded 2025, this leading life insurer delivered a report card that Chairman Cai Xiliang described as a “full house of success”: total premiums exceeded 700 billion yuan for the first time, net profit grew by 44.1% on a high base, and both total assets and investment assets surpassed 74 trillion yuan. These figures collectively outline China Life’s solid footprint in the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan.

As the spotlight shifts from past glory to the unknown future, the market is more focused on how this industry giant plans its next five years. Especially in the “14th Five-Year Plan” outline, the word “insurance” is mentioned 27 times, weaving a vast web of policy dividends and societal needs—from commercial medical insurance to long-term care insurance. How will China Life “step up”? At the performance conference, from Cai Xiliang’s “Four Major Dividends” assessment to President Li Mingguang’s detailed analysis of channel development, and Vice President Liu Hui’s strategic positioning on investment tactics, a clear roadmap is gradually unfolding.

The dialectic of “stability” and “progress”: from “full house of success” to “golden era”

Cai Xiliang summarized 2025 with three words—“stability,” “momentum,” and “resilience.”

This “quality” is also reflected more intuitively in the data: total premiums of 729.887 billion yuan made the company the first in the industry to surpass the 700 billion yuan mark; net profit attributable to the parent company of 154.078 billion yuan achieved a strong 44.1% growth on a high base; and the market value broke through 1 trillion yuan, firmly holding the top spot among global life insurers.

These achievements were not easy. Cai Xiliang admitted at the performance conference that the past year was “a year of multiple pressures layered upon each other,” but ultimately resulted in a “high-quality” report card.

The labels of “stability” and “progress” are equally evident in channel development. As the fundamental platform for value creation, individual insurance channels also delivered a steady performance in 2025: total premiums of 551.79 billion yuan, up 4.3% year-on-year; new business value for the year increased by 25.5%, reaching 39.299 billion yuan.

Behind this is the continuous optimization of the team structure. Data shows that China Life’s individual insurance channel saw a 40% year-on-year increase in high-quality personnel, with a 13-month retention rate up by 2.2 percentage points. This indicates that more high-caliber, resilient new talent is entering the fold, laying the groundwork for future growth. Regarding channel development, President Li Mingguang stated that individual insurance channels play a leading role among sales channels, with sustainable development capabilities remaining solid. China Life takes individual insurance as its core platform, while bancassurance and group insurance channels flourish, continuously improving professional management, enhancing product and service offerings, and fully meeting diverse customer needs such as annuities, life, and health insurance—building a multi-point support and multi-polar driving pattern.

Looking ahead five years, Cai Xiliang said: “Although the external environment remains complex and volatile, we believe the next five years will still be a golden strategic opportunity for China Life.” He summarized this confidence as the “Four Major Dividends”: economic environment dividend, policy dividend, demand dividend, and technological dividend.

Among these, the policy dividend signals are the strongest—“The 14th Five-Year Plan” emphasizes insurance multiple times, which the company views as a major industry opportunity. In response, China Life’s strategic goal is clear: accelerate the development into a world-class life insurance company with Chinese characteristics. To achieve this, the company will focus on cultivating three core capabilities: long-term value creation across cycles, digitalization for the future, and strengthened risk management, ensuring steady progress in a complex environment.

Financial commentator Guo Shiliang believes China Life has delivered a satisfactory performance, with growth in revenue, net profit, and investment returns. Notably, the total dividends paid out reached 24.195 billion yuan, up 31.7% year-on-year, reflecting increased emphasis on shareholder value. Behind the growth in performance, the company is also enhancing its dividend distribution capacity, increasing cash dividends to attract investment.

“Ballast” and “Winning Strategy”: The tactics of managing trillion-level funds

For a large-scale company like China Life, every investment decision influences the market.

In 2025, the company’s total investment income reached 387.694 billion yuan, up 25.8% year-on-year, with an investment yield of 6.09%, marking its best investment performance in recent years.

This achievement stems from precise control of “ballast” and “winning strategies.”

“Equity investments are the key to boosting returns, fixed income investments are the ballast for stability, and alternative investments are the growth engine for diversified gains,” Liu Hui summarized the company’s investment philosophy at the performance conference. Regarding 2025 operations, she revealed that the company actively promoted medium- and long-term funds into the market, strategically increasing equity investment ratio by 5 percentage points, focusing on new productive assets and high-dividend quality assets. As a result, by the end of 2025, the company’s public market equity investments exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 450 billion yuan from the start of the year, becoming a major driver of investment income.

Meanwhile, fixed income investments continue to serve as stabilizers. Over the years, the company has maintained a steady allocation of long-duration bonds and high-quality alternative assets, forming a solid “bottom layer.” In a low-interest-rate environment, strategic allocation and active management further optimize asset-liability matching, continuously strengthening the fixed income base. Additionally, leveraging long-term and patient capital, the company increases product and strategy innovation, building a comprehensive alternative investment ecosystem across all asset classes and lifecycle stages, with total alternative investments exceeding 1 trillion yuan, opening long-term growth space.

In the face of global geopolitical risks, Liu Hui stated that China Life’s overseas investment exposure is very small, accounting for less than 0.89% of total assets, and the company has not participated in private debt investments. As a long-cycle insurance fund, she emphasized that “flow does not compete; what matters is the continuous flow,” and the company will dynamically adjust its asset allocation, seize market opportunities amid volatility, and focus on high-quality core assets to achieve steady long-term investment performance.

Industry experts believe that this “unchanging” resolve is the confidence behind “patient capital” crossing cycles. Pangu Think Tank senior researcher Jiang Han commented that the increase in total investment yield to 6.09% is remarkable in a volatile market, thanks to the company’s commitment to long-term and value investing, as well as its professional ability to dynamically optimize asset allocation. Additionally, the equity investment scale exceeding 1.2 trillion yuan not only increased returns but also demonstrated the responsible role of state-owned enterprises in the market.

“Silver-haired” new track: China Life’s practice in long-term care insurance

As the “silver wave” merges with “Healthy China,” aging and health have become essential themes for the insurance industry.

On March 25, the Central Office and State Council issued the “Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of a Long-term Care Insurance System,” which states that within about three years, the institutional arrangements for urban and rural integration will be basically established, with a shared responsibility funding mechanism, fair and moderate benefit guarantees, and a scientific, standardized management system forming, and a long-term care insurance system suited to China’s national conditions will be basically in place.

At the performance release, China Life responded to this national “task” with a set of data.

“Since 2016, the company has actively participated in over 70 pilot projects for long-term care insurance,” revealed Hou Jin, Assistant President and Chief Actuary of China Life.

She explained that the company has accumulated professional capabilities and rich experience. First, it has the ability to handle the entire chain of long-term care insurance work, forming a comprehensive, professional management system. Second, through its agency and branch network, it has built a broad, high-quality, capable service team to provide insured clients with excellent long-term care insurance services. Third, by leveraging digital technology, it has developed China Life’s smart long-term care insurance management information system, offering full-process, multi-scenario technical solutions.

This accumulation gives China Life confidence in facing new policy opportunities. Hou Jin stated that the company will contribute to the steady and orderly implementation of long-term care insurance with a responsible corporate attitude, high-quality service, and professional operation.

Industry insiders see this not only as a response to policy calls but also as a natural extension of its big health and elderly care strategy.

It is understood that in the “Insurance + Elderly Care” sector, the company has already set up 20 institutional elderly care projects in 16 cities including Beijing, Tianjin, and Chengdu, and launched the first four “Sui Xin Ju” travel and residence elderly care products. It actively explores the construction of home-based elderly care service systems to meet diverse customer needs and empower the development of its core insurance business.

As Cai Xiliang said, China’s insurance depth and density are only about 60% of the global average, total assets of the insurance industry account for less than 10% of the total financial assets, and the third pillar is still in its infancy, with scale and substitution rates much lower than in developed markets. The share of health insurance payouts in total healthcare costs still has significant room for growth. The public’s demand for high-quality health, elderly care, and wealth management is increasing, providing broad space for industry development. This is both a “demand dividend” and a responsibility for China Life. From participating in over 70 long-term care insurance pilot projects to strategic focus after surpassing 700 billion yuan in premiums, China Life is working to turn its insights into “silver-haired” issues into a solid force serving national interests and improving people’s livelihoods, paving a warm foundation for its “15th Five-Year Plan” goal of “stepping up.”

Beijing Business Today Reporter: Hu Yongxin