Chinese insurers enjoyed investment returns last year totalling 279.2 billion yuan ($38.67 billion) -- more than in the previous five years combined, said Wu.. But he told senior insurance executives at the conference that these returns, largely driven by a booming stock market, were abnormal.
"Once risks crop up in the stock market, it's too horrifying even to think about it," Wu said.
He told the executives to sharpen their risk awareness and to think twice before blindly launching new equity-linked policies.
Wu said insurance premiums in China increased 25 percent in 2007 to 704 billion yuan ($97 billion), easily outpacing the 14.4 percent rise in 2006.
With fewer than 4 percent of China's 1.3 billion people covered by life insurance, the industry is expanding fast.
Insurers' investments reached 2.7 trillion yuan at the end of 2007, of which 43 percent was in bonds, 24 percent in bank deposits and 18 percent in equities, Wu said. He did not account for the remaining 15 percent.