Yang Mingsheng, former vice chairman of China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), was appointed chairman of China Life Insurance (Group) Co., replacing Yuan Li, China Life announced on its website.

Yang, 57, served as CIRC vice chairman for the past five years after working for about 30 years at the Agricultural Bank of China.

China's four state-owned insurance giants - China Life, People's Insurance Company (Group) of China, China Taiping Insurance Group Co., and China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation - have been promoted to deputy-ministerial level organizations, according to a microblog post by Hao Yansu, dean of the School of Insurance at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Hao also revealed that besides China Life, the other three insurers will also see executive reshuffles before long.

Contact the writer of this story at: yanp@china.org.cn.