Taikang Insurance Group Chairman and CEO Chen Dongsheng responds to Every Daily: In the future, the elderly care sector will require large models to support chronic disease management and health management.

The Daily Economic News reporter | Zhang Rui | The Daily Economic News editor | Dong Xingsheng

From March 22 to 23, the China Development Forum 2026 Annual Meeting was held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

Chen Dongsheng, founder, chairman, and CEO (chief executive officer) of Taikang Insurance Group, delivered remarks at the “Opportunities and Challenges of Population Change and Economic Growth” special seminar.

Chen Dongsheng said: “Today, we often talk about a once-in-a-century transformation. In fact, one of the biggest transformations is that human beings have entered a long-lifespan era. Advances in medical science keep extending people’s lifespans. The extension of lifespan is a super trend and a linear phenomenon.”

He said, therefore, there are many forecasts that in 30 or 50 years, people’s average life expectancy may reach 100. The “14th Five-Year Plan” outline also sets a target of “raising average life expectancy to 80.” This linear pace is increasing—growing at about 0.32 years per year on average, meaning it will increase by 3 years in a decade.

Chen Dongsheng outlined five key features of the long-lifespan era: one is a low birth rate, two is a low death rate, three is the linear growth of population lifespan, four is continually increasing average life expectancy, and five is the population structure gradually converging from a “pyramid” shape toward a “column” shape, and even taking on an “umbrella” shape in the future.

Chen Dongsheng noted that after entering the long-lifespan era, especially the demand for medical care, elder care, rehabilitation, and nursing will be huge. Therefore, Taikang is also committed to building an “integrated model of medical, care, and wellness” seamless, whole-lifecycle service system, to realize the accessibility and affordability of elder care services. “In the past, there were medical consortiums for medical care. So we’re also exploring a ‘long-lifespan-linked’ consortium—bringing institutional elder care, community elder care, and home elder care together to form a new network and a new service system.”

During the annual meeting, Chen Dongsheng accepted an on-site interview with a reporter from The Daily Economic News.

Recently, when discussing future investment directions, Chen Dongsheng said they are “carbon reduction + technology” and “healthy aging + consumption.” Taikang’s insurance funds are a typical form of “patient capital.” In these two directions, where is the biggest investment opportunity right now? And where are the biggest risk points?

Regarding this question, Chen Dongsheng said that China’s economy currently shows “K-shaped” characteristics. On the one hand, it is reflected in technology, manufacturing, and exports. On the other hand, it is reflected in people’s livelihoods, health, and long life. Therefore, “healthy aging + consumption” is about laying out from the perspective of consumption, while “carbon reduction + technology” falls within the category of hard technology. In fact, all of these areas are worth investing in. Especially as we enter the long-lifespan era, healthy aging and elder care is a major trend.

Regarding the “14th Five-Year Plan” outline target of “raising average life expectancy to 80,” Chen Dongsheng believes that with such a target in place, we need to “invest in people.” This year’s Government Work Report clearly emphasizes investing in people more. In the “14th Five-Year Plan” section of the report as well, it also mentions “investing in people,” meaning including this direction.

When talking about AI + elder care, Chen Dongsheng said: “AI doesn’t need to be discussed much. In the future, in the elder-care space, managing chronic diseases and health management will both require support from large models. Therefore, in terms of vertical large models for the long-lifespan era, we have a strong advantage—we have massive, high-quality big data.”

Cover image source: The Daily Economic News media assets database