AIG of the US showed that insurance is neither strait-laced nor safe. China Life wants to go one better and prove the industry has guts of steel. Undeterred by global recession and volatile markets, China’s biggest insurer is embarking on an overseas shopping spree. Put another way, the $86bn company is calling the bottom of the market. Exactly how much it proposes to blow, however, and where, is for the moment unclear.

There is little in the (short) canons of Chinese insurers to suggest their investments pay off. China Life’s smaller rival Ping An has destroyed nearly $3bn of value through its holding in Europe’s Fortis. Policyholders’ money ploughed into domestic equities has also evaporated. China Life recorded a $1.2bn loss on its investments in the first nine months of the year, equivalent to two-thirds of operating profit.