Analysis of Taikang Life's 'Peer-Generation Leadership Succession' and Life Insurance Transformation Challenges

Based on the latest information searched, I will provide a detailed analysis of Taikang Life’s management ‘peer-generation leadership succession’ and the challenges faced by its life insurance transformation.

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On December 17, 2025, Taikang Life issued an announcement stating that General Manager Cheng Kangping retired, and Deputy General Manager Xue Jihao succeeded him as General Manager [1]. This personnel change occurred at a critical juncture as Taikang Life was about to celebrate its 30th anniversary, attracting widespread market attention.

• Born in 1967, joined Taikang Life in 1998
• Promoted to President of Taikang Life in 2016, leading the company for 9 years
• Served the “Taikang Group” for 27 years
• During his tenure as President, Taikang Life’s total assets rose from RMB 640.567 billion in 2017 to RMB 1.85 trillion in 2024 [2]

• Born in 1968, only one year younger than Cheng Kangping
• Master’s degree from the Actuarial Science Department of Nankai University
• Currently serves as Director, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and General Manager of the Bancassurance Division of Taikang Life
• With an actuarial background, he is regarded by the industry as ushering in the “Era of Professional Actuaries at the Helm” [2]

This succession breaks the industry’s conventional age-graded succession practice. Industry insiders point out that this arrangement may reflect certain difficulties Taikang faces in selecting core management personnel [1]. Notably, Cheng Kangping was still two years away from the legal retirement age of 60, making his retirement somewhat sudden — in November 2025, he still called on employees to contribute to Taikang’s 30th anniversary take-off at Taikang Life’s Annual Excellent Performance Commendation Gala, and resigned suddenly just over a month later [1].

This change is not an isolated incident, but the “final move” in the comprehensive adjustment of senior executives of the three core subsidiaries under the Taikang Group over the past two years:

• 2024
  : Li Yanhua resigned as Chairman of Taikang Pension due to age, and Chen Dongsheng took concurrent office
• November 2025
  : Li Zhaohui stepped down as General Manager of Taikang Online upon reaching retirement age, and Fang Yuan served as the interim head [1]

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Indicator	2022	2023	2024
Operating Revenue (RMB 100 million)	2062.66	2388.37	2814.2
Insurance Business Revenue (RMB 100 million)	1708.4	2031.88	2283.24
Net Profit Attributable to Parent (RMB 100 million)	111.37	131.64	143.21

Based on the data of the past three years, Taikang Life’s premium scale has continued to climb, and its profitability has steadily recovered. In 2024, the company’s insurance business revenue ranked fourth in the industry, leading the “Top 6 Traditional Life Insurance Companies” with a growth rate of 12% [2].

• Total assets in 2024: RMB 1.85 trillion
• Total assets as of the end of Q3 2025: RMB 1.92 trillion [2]

Taikang Life is the “ballast stone” of Taikang Insurance Group:

• In 2024, the group’s overall insurance business revenue reached RMB 266.1 billion
• Taikang Life contributed RMB 228.3 billion, accounting for as high as 85.79% of the total [1][2]

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The life insurance industry is facing severe challenges from a low-interest-rate environment. Traditional life insurance products are mainly fixed-income products. Against the backdrop of sustained interest rate decline, insurance companies face the risk of interest margin loss. Executives with actuarial backgrounds are more adept at risk pricing and product innovation, which is one of the important considerations for Xue Jihao’s appointment [2].

In recent years, regulatory authorities have continuously raised compliance requirements for the life insurance industry:

• Continuous strengthening of solvency regulation
• Increasingly strict standardization of sales practices
• Enhanced protection of consumer rights and interests

The traditional “human sea tactics” model relied on by life insurance is no longer sustainable:

• The number of agents in the agent channel continues to decline
• The high-cost offline individual insurance model faces compression
• Insurance companies need to find new growth drivers [1]

“Veteran executives in key positions” is still the common status quo of the Taikang Group’s management:

• Most core executives of the group and its three core subsidiaries are from the “post-1965” and “post-1970” generations
• In the next few years, a group of post-1965 executives including Duan Guosheng and Miao Li will retire one after another
• If the cultivation of post-1980 and post-1990 backbone talents cannot be accelerated, the company may face pressure from talent gaps [1]

Although the aging senior management team is rich in experience, it is susceptible to organizational inertia and lags in understanding emerging business models. Although the company has proposed “technology-driven” and “digital transformation”, the decision-making level is still dominated by traditional insurance veterans, and its response speed may lag behind the industry pace [1].

In the first three quarters of 2025, Taikang Life’s insurance business revenue reached RMB 196.9 billion, a year-on-year slight increase of 3.77%, which is lower than the industry average [1]. In the first quarter of 2025, revenue fluctuated significantly, with a year-on-year decrease of nearly 18%, recording the largest decline among leading life insurance companies.

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Facing transformation challenges, Taikang Life has proposed the “New Life Insurance” strategy, which deeply integrates insurance protection with healthcare and senior care services:

• Traditional Model
  : Two-dimensional structure of “insurance + assets”
• New Life Insurance Model
  : Synergy among three ends: “payment + services + investment” [2]

Taikang’s vision for elderly care originated in 2009, when the former China Insurance Regulatory Commission approved Taikang’s equity investment plan for senior care communities, making Taikang the first insurance capital enterprise to obtain a pilot for senior care community investment [2].

, a professional brand under Taikang Insurance Group focusing on the construction, operation and innovative services of senior care, nursing and rehabilitation entities, achieves the following through:

• Heavy-asset self-construction and mergers and acquisitions of healthcare and senior care communities
• Locking high-net-worth customers’ long-term policies and service consumption through mature shopping malls
• Forming a cross-selling closed loop to enhance profitability [1]

Taikang Life regards HWP as a core channel, and through a professional team of Health Wealth Planners, promotes the transformation of insurance sales from product-oriented to solution-oriented.

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With an actuarial background, Xue Jihao is able to:

• Leverage professional knowledge in insurance product pricing, risk assessment and financial management
• Better respond to market changes and regulatory requirements
• Optimize product structure and investment strategies in a low-interest-rate environment [2]

Xue Jihao concurrently serves as General Manager of the Bancassurance Division. The bancassurance channel has important strategic value in the current environment:

• The customer acquisition cost of the bank channel is relatively low
• It helps expand the mid-to-high-end customer group
• Forms synergy with the healthcare and senior care strategy [2]

• Xue Jihao is close in age to his predecessor. Although the same issue may arise in the long run, it will not immediately become an unstable factor in the short term
• The key lies in whether he has sufficient leadership and strategic vision to lead the company forward [2]

• How to balance scale and efficiency
• How to accelerate the rejuvenation of the management team
• How to maintain differentiated advantages in fierce competition

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Company	Initiatives for Management Rejuvenation
Ping An of China	“Middle-aged generation” takes the lead; post-1980 executive Fu Xin serves as Executive Director, Deputy General Manager and Chief Financial Officer; the new generation aged around 45 covers fields such as technology and data
China Life	Appointed post-1975 executives Lan Yonghong and Zhang Xinyu as Assistant Presidents in December 2025
AIA China	Appointed post-1975 executive Zhang Min as Deputy General Manager in April 2025

In comparison, Taikang Life’s pace of management rejuvenation is relatively slow.

Insurance companies are promoting young professional talents to senior management positions, reflecting the industry’s urgent demand for innovation and change. The insurance industry has entered the era of “stock competition”, and executives with actuarial backgrounds are more adept at risk pricing and product innovation, which is a requirement for industry transformation [2].

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In 2026, Taikang Life will reach its “30th anniversary, a time of maturity”. How will this industry veteran, under the leadership of the new management:

1. On the basis of inheriting advantages
   , solve problems such as compliance, channels, talents and risk control during the transformation period
2. Continue to deepen the “New Life Insurance” strategy
   and seek opportunities in the national strategies of “Healthy China” and “Active Response to Population Aging”
3. Accelerate the rejuvenation of the management team
   and reserve a talent echelon for future development
4. Balance scale and efficiency
   and maintain profitability in a low-interest-rate environment

This is not only related to Taikang Life’s own development in the next 30 years, but also its exploration process will contribute important practical references to the transformation and upgrading of the entire life insurance industry.

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[1] Sina Finance - Taikang Life’s “Peer-Generation Leadership Succession” at the 30th Anniversary Juncture: The End and Rebirth of the Traditional Life Insurance Model (https://cj.sina.cn/articles/view/6230739408/1736189d000101tbvi)

[2] Jiemian News - “Veteran” Retires, Deputy General Manager Promoted: RMB 1.9 Trillion Taikang Life “Braces for” Critical Transformation Period (https://www.jiemian.com/article/13789391.html)

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Report Generation Date: January 13, 2026
Data Sources: Public market information, listed company announcements, industry research reports