China Life AMP: Fund Manager Changes, Internal Control and Performance Reflection

Blue Whale News, June 29 (Reporter Qi Hezhong) The general manager of insurance-affiliated fund company China Life AMP has been replaced. On June 23, the company announced that GM E Hua left due to work arrangements, and Liu Zhongjiang succeeded as GM. Liu previously served as GM of major shareholder China Life's Direct Investment Department and Fixed Income Investment Department.

E Hua had been GM since January 2023, about three years and five months. Before becoming GM of China Life AMP, he was head of China Life's Equity Investment Department. On the company's homepage, the slogan reads: "Upholding original intention for 12 years, repaying every trust." However, the company's actual operating performance over the past three years has been less than satisfactory. As of Q1 this year, non-money market fund scale was 181.8 billion yuan, ranking 30th in the industry. But fund types are dominated by bond funds; equity funds are small: stock funds about 10 billion yuan, hybrid funds about 5.6 billion.

During E Hua's tenure as former China Life equity head, equity fund scale overall not only failed to rise but fell, with hybrid funds down 50%. Under his management, equity funds underperformed in both performance and scale, and internal control issues emerged. In August 2025, Tianjin regulator fined fund manager Li Dan for insider trading. In December 2023, Beijing regulator fined dedicated account investment department head Hu Wenbiao for illegal stock trading and market manipulation. Despite these issues, E Hua returned to the major shareholder for further promotion. China Life AMP's daily work has become heavily focused on meetings and paperwork; performance for holders is not given due priority, deviating from CSRC's high-quality development requirements. In the past three years, the major shareholder has assigned many people to key positions, while the heavy lifting remains mainly done by market hires. This drastically reduced marketization, weakening research and sales capabilities.

Before 2023, China Life AMP was different—more marketized. Its first GM Zuo Jiqing was relatively principled in maintaining governance. The company was founded in October 2013 by Zuo (former head of China Life Asset's fixed income department) and Shen Mengyu (deputy head of risk management and compliance). Over 10 years, it grew from scratch to a mid-sized fund company. By end 2022, non-money market fund scale was 128.5 billion yuan, ranking 31st. Stock funds about 7.6 billion, hybrid about 12.8 billion. At that time, the company had strong professional standards; management came mainly from market recruitment, with strong competitiveness. But after the company scaled up, some at the major shareholder coveted key positions, demanding appointments. Zuo resisted, facing immense pressure. In January 2023, GM Zuo, inspector Shen, and fixed income investment director Dong Ruiqian resigned for "personal reasons." After Changning State Capital took over Chunhou Fund, in January 2026, Zuo and Shen became Chunhou Fund's GM and deputy GM respectively.

Over the past three years, China Life AMP's filter has shattered. E Hua and his team realized their butterfly dream, while founders like Zuo and Shen underwent phoenix nirvana. In the Zhuang Zhou dream butterfly story, Zhuang Zhou dreamed of being a butterfly, very comfortable; upon waking, he found he was still Zhuang Zhou. He became a great thinker because he could clearly distinguish dream from reality. In real life, some cannot tell dream from reality. Some state-owned enterprise cadres fail to transform into competent operators after years, living in butterfly dreams, preferring to stay drunk than wake up. This article hopes China Life AMP earnestly studies the essence of "development is the absolute principle," focuses on operations, speaks through performance, avoids formality trap. It should return to marketization and internationalization, abandon formalism, avoid deceiving superiors and subordinates, and not miss valuable development opportunities. Management should put heart into work, ensure state capital appreciates, and generate good returns for fund holders.