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.

Everyday Business News Reporter | Zhang Rui Everyday Business News Editor | Dong Xingsheng

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

Chen Dongsheng, founder, chairman and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Taikang Insurance Group, delivered a speech at the special discussion session on “Opportunities and Challenges of Demographic Changes and Economic Growth.”

Chen Dongsheng said, “Today, we often talk about the great changes unseen in a century. In fact, one of the biggest changes is that humankind has entered an era of longevity. Advances in medical science are continually extending people’s lifespans. The extension of lifespan is a super trend—it is a linear phenomenon.”

He said, so there are many projections that in 30 or 50 years, people’s average life expectancy may reach 100. The outline of the “14th Five-Year Plan” also sets the goal of “increasing life expectancy at birth to 80 years.” This linear pace is growing—roughly increasing at an average annual rate of 0.32 years, meaning an increase of 3 years in a decade.

Chen Dongsheng outlined five key features of the longevity era: one is low birth rates, two is low death rates, three is the linear growth of population lifespans, four is the continuous extension of average life expectancy, and five is that the population structure gradually converges from a “pyramid” shape into a “column” shape, and may even present a “bell/umbrella” shape in the future.

Chen Dongsheng mentioned that after entering the longevity era, especially with the immense demand for medical care, elderly care, rehabilitation, and nursing, Taikang is also committed to building an “integrated medical care and elderly care for wellbeing and peace of mind” service system with seamless, whole-lifecycle connectivity, to realize the accessibility and affordability of elderly care services. “In the past, medical care had medical consortiums. So we are also exploring a longevity care consortium—bringing together institutional elderly care, community elderly care, and home-based elderly care to form a new network and a new service system.”

During the annual conference, Chen Dongsheng accepted an on-site interview with reporters from the 《Daily Economic News》.

Recently, Chen Dongsheng has said that the future investment directions are “dual carbon + technology” and “healthy aging + consumption.” Taikang’s insurance funds are a typical form of “patient capital.” In these two directions, where are the biggest investment opportunities today? And where are the biggest risk points?

On this question, Chen Dongsheng said that currently, China’s economy shows “K-shaped” characteristics. On the one hand, this is reflected in technology, manufacturing, and exports; on the other hand, it is reflected in people’s livelihoods, health, and longevity. Therefore, “healthy aging + consumption” is a layout from the perspective of consumption, while “dual carbon + technology” falls within the scope of hard technology. In fact, all these areas are worth investing in. Especially when entering the longevity era, healthy aging and elderly care is a major trend.

Regarding the goal in the outline of the “14th Five-Year Plan” to “increase life expectancy at birth to 80 years,” Chen Dongsheng believes that it is precisely because such a goal exists that we must “invest in people.” This year’s Government Work Report has clearly stated that more attention should be paid to investing in people, and the sections about the “14th Five-Year Plan” in the report also touch on “investing in people,” which includes this direction.

When discussing AI + elderly care, Chen Dongsheng said, “No need to say much about AI. In the future, in the field of elderly care, both chronic disease management and health management will need support from large models. Therefore, in terms of vertical large models for the longevity era, we have strong advantages—we have massive, high-quality big data.”

Cover image source: Daily Economic News Media Materials Database