China Life Anxin Fund GM changes hands: the shattered halo and a rethink of equity investing
Blue Whale News, June 29: the general manager at the insurance-linked fund company China Life Anxin Fund has changed.
On June 23, the company announced that general manager He Hua had stepped down due to work arrangements, and Liu Zhongjiang would take over. Liu Zhongjiang previously served as general manager of the direct investment division and general manager of the fixed-income investment department at the major shareholder China Life.
He Hua had served as general manager since January 2023, for a little over three years. Before becoming general manager of China Life Anxin Fund, he was general manager of China Life's equity investment department.
The company's website homepage slogan reads: 'Stay true to the original mission for 12 years, and repay every bit of trust.' Yet the actual performance over the past three years and more has been disappointing. As of the end of Q1 this year, the company's non-money-market fund scale was 181.8 billion yuan, ranking 30th in the industry. The fund mix is dominated by bond funds, with only a small share in equity funds. Among them, stock funds were about 10 billion yuan and mixed funds about 5.6 billion yuan.
As the former general manager of China Life's equity division, during He Hua's three years and five months in charge, the overall scale of equity funds did not rise; instead, it fell. Mixed funds declined by as much as 50%.
During He Hua's tenure, China Life Anxin Fund's equity products not only underperformed and shrank in scale, but the company's internal controls also repeatedly exposed major loopholes.
In August 2025, according to an administrative penalty document from the Tianjin securities regulator, fund manager Li Dan was punished for insider trading with an 'underground account'.
Earlier, in December 2023, according to an administrative penalty document from the Beijing securities regulator, the head of the separate-account investment department, Hu Wenbiao, was punished for illegal stock trading and manipulation of the securities market.
Despite these issues, none of this prevented He Hua from returning to the major shareholder and being further promoted into the leadership team. The article noted that in the company's day-to-day work, bureaucracy and endless meetings were serious. In the assessment system, the requirement to make money for holders was not placed where it should be, which deviated significantly from the regulator's requirements for high-quality development.
Over the past three years and more, the major shareholder has sent many people into the company and placed them in important posts, while the hard and tedious work has still mostly been recruited from the market. This has sharply reduced the company's market orientation and left its investment research and sales capabilities seriously insufficient.
Changes in market-oriented management and early governance ideas
Before 2023, China Life Anxin Fund was not like it is now; back then the company was much more market-oriented. The article mentions that the first general manager, Zuo Jiqing, was relatively willing to stand by principles and protect corporate governance.
China Life Anxin Fund was established in October 2013, jointly founded by Zuo Jiqing, then general manager of the fixed-income department at China Life Asset Company, and Shen Mengyu, deputy general manager of the risk management and compliance department (acting head).
After the company was established, it took 10 years to grow from scratch into a mid-sized fund company. By the end of 2022, the company's non-money-market fund scale was 128.5 billion yuan, ranking 31st in the industry. Among them, stock funds were about 7.6 billion yuan and mixed funds about 12.8 billion yuan.
At that time, the company had a high bar for professional expertise, and its management team was mainly hired from the market, giving it strong competitiveness.
However, as assets grew larger, some people at the major shareholder began eyeing important company posts and wanted them filled through appointments. The article says Zuo Jiqing was unwilling to cooperate and once came under immense pressure.
In January 2023, general manager Zuo Jiqing, chief supervisor Shen Mengyu and fixed-income investment director Dong Ruiqian all left for 'personal reasons.' The article also notes that after Changning State-owned Capital took over Chunhou Fund, Zuo Jiqing and Shen Mengyu became general manager and deputy general manager of Chunhou Fund in January 2026.
Operational demands guided by the principle that 'development is the hard truth'
Using the meaning of 'The Butterfly Dream of Zhuangzi' as a metaphor, the article expresses concern about management status and transformation capability, and calls for a return to a market-oriented and internationalized development path.
The article urges the company to seriously study and understand the essence of 'development is the hard truth', focus tightly on operations, let performance speak, and avoid formalism; the company should quickly return to a market-oriented and internationalized path, abandon formalism, avoid deceiving superiors and subordinates, and avoid missing development opportunities; the management team should truly put its mind to work, help preserve and grow the state-owned capital invested by the major shareholder, and help holders achieve good returns.
