According to a survey conducted by China Ping An Insurance Company, among 103 passengers involved in May 7 air crash, only 42 had bought flight accident insurance. So far, there isn't a very specific account of how many passengers bought the flight accident insurance in the April 15 air crash. However, the Beijing Insurance Industry Association indicated that 21 passengers who bought their tickets in Beijing didn't buy this insurance.

"It has always been said that Chinese people don't pay much attention to insurance, but now I am very aware of it," said a passenger surnamed Zhou as he was about to board a flight.

According to Li Bin, an official from the Ticket Office of Harbin International Airport, generally speaking, for each flight, only about 40 to 50 percent of passengers buy flight accident insurance for their air traveling. However, the airport witnessed a rapid increase in the number of passengers who bought this insurance in the aftermath of the two terrible air crashes.

According to the concerned regulations, it only costs each person 20 yuan (US$2.42) to buy flight accident insurance. In the case of any misfortune, legal beneficiaries of the insured are able to file a claim for a 200,000-yuan (US$24,154.59) compensation from the insurance company, and each insured person can buy up to 10 sets of insurance each time flight.

Wang Lanbin, chief of Group Insurance Dept. of Heilongjiang Branch of China's People Insurance Company, said that the flight accident insurance is a kind of high-risk insurance specifically dedicated to air-traveling passengers, with free will its basic principle. Therefore, many people take it for granted.

As far as Wang Lanbin is concerned, people's indifference to such insurance results from the following two major reasons: One lies in people's trust to luck -- compared with the train and car, many people think that air-travel is the safest option, so it is very unlikely that such a big and rare misfortune could ever fall on their own shoulders; the other reason goes to people's perfunctory attitude toward their own lives. Few people give careful consideration to how much their life is worth, and even fewer think about whether that amount of money paid by the insurance company could effectively support the insured person's family after the tragedy.

Just as weather can be fairy unpredictable, tragedy and disaster can never be prevented without exception. In this regard, insurance becomes a very effective means to ease the risk. Compared with the developed countries, China's insurance industry is still comparatively backward and undeveloped. Relative references show that the depth of insurance in China (the ratio of insurance income to gross domestic product, reflecting the role of the insurance industry in the country's overall economy) in 2000 was less than 1.8 percent, while the world ratio was about 6 percent. In the same year, the density of China's insurance industry (the ratio of insurance income to the total population, reflecting the average security level a country's people enjoy) was 127 yuan (US$15.33), while the world's average was US$360.

People engaged in the insurance industry argue that disorder in domestic insurance companies' management systems, inflexible management mechanisms, the comparatively inexperienced personnel and the bad service can all be blamed for the difference between China's insurance market and its counterparts in foreign countries. However, Chinese public's low awareness of insurance also cannot be ignored.

(新华社 [Xinhua News Agency], translated by Feng Shu for china.org.cn on May 24, 2002)