Considered as the most violent suffered by the country since 1950, the earthquake which hit the Sichuan province is also indicative of the poor insurance sector. On the own testimony of an officer of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, out the 21 billion USD of damages estimated so far, only 5% would be insured. By way of a comparison, half the 120 billion USD losses due to the cyclone Katrina, the biggest natural catastrophe in the United States, was well insured by either the companies or by governmental plans.
The lesson ought to be heeded by the entire profession including China Life Insurance and Ping An, the market's leaders. Statistics show that only 4% of the 1.3 billion Chinese do have an insurance policy, which ranks China at the 49thposition worldwide according to Swiss Re, whereas in the USA, the rate of insured people amounts to 77% of the entire population.
