Bring services to the hearts of the people; this group of China Life employees writes extraordinary stories in ordinary moments.

Every act of perseverance echoes an original aspiration; every story shines with extraordinary brilliance. In the fourth “Moving China Life” (Moving China Life) personnel story showcase event organized by China Life Insurance Company Limited (hereinafter “China Life,” stock codes: 601628.SH, 2628.HK), we once again focus on those new-era finance professionals who are rooted in the grassroots and quietly devoted. They may be in ordinary roles, yet day after day they uphold their responsibility, stand up when it matters most, and pursue service innovation with relentless dedication—vividly illustrating the profound meaning of “Guard the Original Aspiration, Pay Tribute to the Extraordinary.” Let’s step into their stories together, feel the inner strength that comes from the heart, and see how, along the journey of “serving the overall national development strategy and safeguarding people’s better lives,” they are writing extraordinary chapters.

The times do not pause, yet someone always stays in the place where they are most needed. From the ruins after the quake on the Yunjing plateau to the misty islands of the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, and then to the frontline of financial consumer protection in the streets and alleys of Shanghai, three practitioners of China Life are living out the same original aspiration in different ways.

Jiang Dongjun, in the roaring waves of Changdao, uses his footsteps and warmth to connect the final mile of insurance service across the sea; Xie Songchen, among the mountains of Yunnan, uses professionalism and speed to hold up an insurance protection umbrella for affected people; Lu Min, among the streets and markets of Shanghai, safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of financial consumers with warmth and wisdom. Their stories may not be earth-shaking legends, but through day-after-day perseverance and journeys made again and again, they draw the most ordinary professional tone of China Life people—being fulfilled by serving others, and achieving both self and others.

** Jiang Dongjun: “Insurance is what you do—like sending charcoal in the snow—when others need it most”**

Half of the sea of Changdao is poetic, and half is daunting. This is China’s only island county, made up of 32 islands scattered in the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea where they meet. Transportation within the islands relies entirely on boats; the weather is unpredictable, and strong winds, thick fog, and suspension of navigation are part of everyday life here.

In 2018, after retiring from the military, Jiang Dongjun put aside his military uniform, donned China Life’s lapel insignia, and set foot on this island county—staying there for eight years. Before that, he had served in Qashqar, Kashi, Xinjiang, participating in the Wenchuan earthquake relief and rescue as well as the 2008 Olympic security operations, earning four Third-Class Meritorious Service Awards, all while protecting national peace in his uniform. When he transitioned to civilian life, he resolutely chose the insurance industry, simply because of one sentence from his mother: “Insurance is like sending charcoal in the snow when others need it most.” This plain line became his guiding belief for rooting himself on the island and going deep into service—and it also supported his eight-year journey, working day after day to sail the waves and deliver service.

Between the islands of Changdao, travel by boat varies in time; the nearest destinations can be reached within ten-odd minutes, while the farthest can take several hours. For eight years, Jiang Dongjun carried equipment such as a laptop and a printer, visiting every corner of the islands to bring insurance services to the doors of fishing households. His mobile number became a well-known “insurance hotline” on the islands—insurance inquiries before fishermen set sail in the early hours, and claims assistance after elderly people suddenly fell ill at night. He always answered when asked and responded to every request. Very often, older men and women on the islands would come to the counter specifically—not to conduct business, but just to sit down, smile, and say, “Xiao Dong, come over and take a look at this.” On this island full of human warmth, Jiang Dongjun was no longer an outsider insurance salesman long ago; he had become part of the family.

People on Changdao often mention that cold winter morning when Jiang Dongjun would always bring it up. At the time, strong winds rose over the sea and massive waves slammed into the pier; all flights were suspended. An elderly man urgently needed to complete claim procedures and was waiting for the claim payment to treat his illness. Jiang Dongjun inquired from many sides and finally found a fishing boat that had long been operating nearshore and had strong resistance to storms. When he appeared at the elderly man’s door, soaked through and pale, the elderly man held his hand and wept with tears, struggling to say a word—only repeatedly muttering, “You’ve really made it hard on yourself, you’ve really made it hard on yourself.”

Such journeys were countless during Jiang Dongjun’s years on the island. With poor communications on the islands and weak network signals, he used the village’s loudspeakers to broadcast insurance policy education and explained insurance knowledge door by door in fishermen’s dialect, bringing insurance concepts into every island household. When handling claims cases, he brought the strictness and meticulousness of a serviceman: from verifying details with the police station to retrieving medical records from the community health clinic, every step was executed with care, ensuring that every claim payment was delivered in a timely and accurate manner. He always kept that original aspiration in mind, knowing that on an island, one claim payment might be a family’s lifeline—real, tangible “sending charcoal in the snow,” with absolutely no room for negligence.

Across eight years of travel by sea, Jiang Dongjun integrated the spirit of old island life into every time he boarded a boat to go out to sea, every time he visited people’s homes, and every time he handled claims. With his actions, he lived up to the promise of “sending charcoal in the snow when it’s most needed,” letting the warmth of insurance pass through layer after layer of sea waves and reach every fishing household.

(Photo: Jiang Dongjun explains insurance business to residents on the island)

** Xie Songchen: “In the face of disaster, we are the first line of protection for our customers”**

On August 3, 2014, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Longtoushan Town, Ludian County, Zhaotong, Yunnan. As mountains collapsed and the earth split, houses toppled and collapsed, roads were damaged and blocked, and millions of people were trapped in the disaster. At that time, the 25-year-old Xie Songchen had only recently shifted from a finance and accounting role to a claims management position. When the disaster situation suddenly worsened, he hesitated almost not at all. He took the initiative to volunteer, packed a simple bag, and drove into the earthquake zone through the night.

It was the first time Xie Songchen faced such a devastating disaster head-on. On the mountainous roads plagued by aftershocks, rocks rolled down one after another from the cliff walls; the wheels crushed over uneven road surfaces; outside the window were pitch-black mountains, while inside the car was tense silence. When they arrived in Longtoushan Town, the epicenter area was already a wasteland. In the makeshift tents, affected people were packed in tightly; cries, shouts, and rescue voices intertwined. He and his colleagues had no time to rest or adjust; they immediately set up an insurance claim reporting service point at the epicenter—just a table, a few chairs, and a phone; that was their entire work base.

For the next seven days and nights, Xie Songchen and his team barely slept. They worked under the scorching sun, braved aftershocks, and stepped over rubble to cover the affected villages, paying insurance benefits to 143 affected customers. When the first insurance payment was successfully issued, family members received the money and said with reddened eyes, “Thank you for still thinking of us.” In that moment, Xie Songchen became even more certain: claims are never just cold numerical calculations; they are hope passed forward in despair. And he and his team—were the first line of defense guarding that hope.

Over more than ten years, from the mud and rock debris in the Xiongzheng mountain landslide to the search and rescue scene of the China Eastern Airlines 3·21 aircraft accident… at more than 50 sudden claims incidents, Xie Songchen was always the first to rush to the front line. When someone asked him whether he was afraid, he just calmly stated the commitment in his heart: “I am a claims auditor. In the face of disaster, we are the first line of protection for our customers.”

As years passed, Xie Songchen grew from a claims newcomer into an experienced professional holding qualifications as a Junior Economist and a Junior Claims Auditor, becoming—according to colleagues—a “living reference” who could solve complicated and difficult claims issues. But he also knew that one person’s strength is ultimately limited; it takes a team’s perseverance to go farther. In 2023, the “Xie Songchen Studio” was officially established in Kunming, Yunnan. He brought more than 20 young colleagues and plunged headfirst into innovative exploration in technology-enabled claims. The “one-stop” claims direct payment service they built delivers a “five-free” experience—free of claim reporting, free of application, free of documents, free of counter visit, and free of waiting—truly achieving that data goes more and people run less, strengthening a solid line of defense for public wellbeing protection.

“Virtue begins with its source, as talent begins with its wave”—this is what Xie Songchen wrote on the inside cover page of his notebook. In the road of claims service, he always thinks from the customer’s perspective, embedding “start with user needs, end with customer satisfaction” into every verification, every payout, and every innovation. On the land of Yunnan and beyond, he lives into the warmest form of what insurance can be.

(Photo: Xie Songchen studies and optimizes claims services)

** Lu Min: “Contracts are cold, but the solutions can be warm”**

In Shanghai’s Yuyuan business district, crowds pour in and the streets are bustling with everyday life. The consumer protection office of the Shanghai Branch of China Life is tucked right in the middle of this commotion. Lu Min sits at his desk, with a stack of complaint case files piled up in front of him. This long-time China Life veteran, who has been stationed in the consumer protection role for fifteen years, has long grown accustomed to the “chaos” here—angry complainants, people who come with deep grievances, and entangled and complex insurance disputes. His job is to find the warmest balance point between cold contractual clauses and the burning human world.

In January 2012, just one month after he started in the complaint position, Lu Min encountered the first “hard battle” of his career. A customer was highly agitated due to a claims dispute. At the time, Lu Min crouched down, handed the customer a cup of warm water, and sat beside him listening quietly. In that listening, more than two hours passed. When the customer cried out his grievances, he slowed down his note-taking speed; when the customer choked up, he promptly handed over tissues and said softly, “I understand how hard it is for you.”

He didn’t rush to lecture on logic or lay out terms and clauses. Instead, he simply did what a listener should do, using warmth to smooth out the customer’s agitation. Only after the customer’s emotions calmed down did he gradually sort out the root causes and move step by step through communication and negotiation to resolve the issues. On the day the case was concluded, the customer tightly shook his hand, eyes full of gratitude. It was this handshaking that made Lu Min firmly certain that the core of consumer protection work is never only “handling things according to terms,” but also “putting the person at the center of the issue.” And it is what makes the line “Contracts are cold, but the solutions can be warm” become a service philosophy he has never wavered from for fifteen years.

In Lu Min’s office, a piece of calligraphy hangs on the wall: “Use aspiration as a mirror to develop the people’s insurance business.” For fifteen years, this artwork constantly reminds him that consumer protection work must keep the bottom line of laws and regulatory requirements, while also making room for the warmth of human relationships. In March 2025, the social security transfer of nearly ten million Shanghai migrant workers triggered a surge in call volume to the 95519 hotline. To ensure service experience, the Shanghai Branch decisively broke through with technology, launching a self-service inquiry function after 36 hours of focused effort. As a core member, Lu Min fully leveraged his many years of consumer protection experience to accurately grasp customers’ needs and the compliance bottom line, empowering service upgrades with solid professional skills—making consumer protection work not only faster, but also warmer.

Lu Min insists on “analyzing one sparrow to solve a whole category of problems.” As the leading unit, he pushed for the development of industry self-discipline evaluation guidelines, serving as the chair unit of the Consumer Rights and Interests Committee of the Shanghai Insurance Industry Peer Association. As a practitioner of the “Fengqiao experience,” he helped the Shanghai Branch of China Life become one of the first units in Shanghai to set up a bank-and-insurance industry dispute mediation center dispatched “mediation outpost.” In the first half of 2025, the China Life mediation outpost ranked first in overall industry comprehensive standings. The regular joint-consultation system launched by the outpost has also been promoted and adopted as an industry norm.

In addition, Lu Min has extended consumer protection services to the front line of financial education and outreach. He has long led the financial education work in Jiande Community, and, together with “three regulators and one institution” (three offices and one bank), provided convenient financial services to residents. He also proactively assisted in handling customers’ requests from other insurance companies. For special groups and rural areas, he led the establishment of a rural financial education workstation in Songjiang District, and innovatively rolled out Braille versions of financial education materials—so that financial knowledge reaches every corner of the city and every group, using caring services to reinforce the consumer protection shield in finance.

Lu Min likes cycling. In his spare time, he rides through Shanghai’s streets and alleys on his bicycle. This hobby has also shaped his work philosophy: “See every stretch of road clearly and press every pedal steadily; don’t aim for quick success—steadily and solidly move forward.” In fifteen years of consumer protection work, he has kept going steadily, one step and one footprint at a time, practicing the philosophy of “solutions with warmth,” and on the track of financial consumer protection, he has firmly guarded the financial risk bottom line for countless consumers.

(Photo: Lu Min carries out financial knowledge popularization in the community)

Though Jiang Dongjun, Xie Songchen, and Lu Min are in different regions of our country and fight on different posts in the insurance industry, they share the same perseverance and original aspiration. Their stories are a microcosm of the countless practitioners at China Life. Across the country, countless China Life people light up with tiny sparks and build greatness through the ordinary—delivering the warmth of insurance to every corner of our motherland, and to the places where people most need it.

(Editor: Jiao Yue)

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