A research instrument worth hundreds of thousands of yuan sits idle in a laboratory, with small and medium-sized enterprises eager to use it, yet the owning institution hesitates to share it due to liability concerns. Since the equipment is state-owned assets, questions regarding who bears responsibility if damage occurs during the sharing process, who handles repairs, and how costs are calculated remain unresolved, leaving the asset unused and the concept of sharing stalled by institutional caution. Conversely, consumers who have purchased insurance often encounter unsatisfactory claims experiences, struggling with complex policy language and opaque procedures, and after several fruitless negotiations, they come to believe that buying insurance is easy but getting claims paid is difficult. In truth, these situations rarely stem from deliberate obstruction but rather from a fundamental disconnect between both parties regarding policy interpretation and procedural expectations, essentially placing them on different wavelengths. Both scenarios are hindered by the same underlying issue: insufficient trust and unclear rules, where neither party dares to take the first step forward.

The new "National Ten Articles" for the insurance industry call for helping to fortify the economic security net, the social security net, and the disaster prevention and control net, while serving the real economy and people's livelihoods. When translated into concrete practice, this means the insurance industry must demonstrate its professional capacity to convert reluctance into confidence where trust is scarce. China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. (CPIC), through its subsidiary China Pacific Property Insurance Co., Ltd. (referred to as Pacific Property Insurance), has undertaken two initiatives in Sichuan, both centered on the concept of "daring." The first, named "Shared Insurance Protection," provides coverage for the open sharing of equipment owned by research institutions; the second involves establishing on-site mediation studios that bring professional mediators directly into insurance company branches. While one initiative targets technological innovation and the other addresses consumer concerns, CPIC is fundamentally accomplishing the same objective: clarifying ambiguous responsibilities and enabling actions that were previously considered too risky to undertake.

Insuring Equipment Previously Considered Too Risky To Share

In 2017, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology, in collaboration with the Mianyang Municipal People's Government, jointly established a large-scale scientific instrument sharing platform to explore pathways for opening equipment access to external entities. Starting with experimental capability sharing, the platform developed its own database to match enterprise product demands with equipment resources in a reverse-matching process, serving approximately 400 enterprises annually with about 16,000 service instances per year. However, equipment damage, high maintenance costs, and ambiguous liability determinations have remained bottlenecks constraining sharing efforts, presenting considerable challenges for the platform's operators. The platform's operational representative, Dong Lei, noted that research institutions are vast with complex procedures, making it relatively troublesome for SMEs to connect with them, and many instruments constitute state-owned assets where SMEs cannot afford compensation in the event of damage, making research institutions reluctant to expose these assets to sharing risks.

In early 2026, under the guidance of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology, Pacific Property Insurance launched the comprehensive "Shared Insurance Protection" product, marking the first time in Southwest China that full-scenario coverage, full-process protection, and high-efficiency services have been provided against damage risks in research instrument sharing. According to a representative from Pacific Property Insurance's Mianyang Central Sub-branch, this product covers three categories of risk: equipment damage from operational errors or electrical faults, property losses from fires, explosions, or lightning strikes, and third-party personal injury or property damage. Currently, the insured objects primarily consist of general-purpose scientific research equipment valued above 500,000 yuan with an operational lifespan of 3 to 10 years, effectively bridging the coverage gap that follows the expiration of equipment warranty periods. To advance instrument sharing, Sichuan Province has also promoted a "Sharing Engineer" training program, which the Mianyang Central Sub-branch representative noted has positively contributed to the promotion of the new insurance product. Since many instruments in research institutions are imported, repair channels are complex and fee standards are difficult to unify, leaving questions about damage assessment, designated repair facilities, and cost calculations without standardized answers, making the claims and damage assessment mechanism the critical determinant of whether the product can succeed.

To address this, Pacific Property Insurance is currently in discussions with multiple institutions including Southwest University of Science and Technology, Jiuzhou Group, and the 58th Research Institute, planning to establish a third-party fair pricing system leveraging their professional maintenance teams, setting claims standards based on historical repair data, and advocating for the inclusion of equipment maintenance services within the insurance coverage scope. Dong Lei believes that operators and equipment managers alike previously carried heavy psychological burdens, but with the coverage provided by this product, that burden can be significantly alleviated, and by mitigating liability risks through risk prevention, research resources can transition from a state of reluctance to one of confident sharing, genuinely activating the willingness to participate in equipment sharing initiatives. Li Zhiming, Director of the Innovation Resources Division at the Mianyang Science and Technology City Management Committee, explained that enterprises currently face risk protection needs at various stages including research and development, pilot testing, and technology commercialization. As the only science and technology city approved by the Party Central Committee and the State Council, Mianyang is accelerating the construction of its "587+" modern industrial system, where emerging industry projects involve high investment and significant uncertainty, making enterprises cautious and creating particularly urgent demand for pilot-stage insurance protection. In his view, the improvement of insurance credit enhancement or economic compensation mechanisms will help enterprises strengthen their confidence and enable bolder strides in technological innovation.

Opening A Door For On-Site Resolution Of Previously Unresolvable Disputes

While "Shared Insurance Protection" addresses the trust deficit inherent in research equipment sharing, the on-site mediation studios tackle the trust gap in insurance consumption. As insurance protection becomes deeply integrated into daily life, disagreements frequently arise in areas such as policy sales, claims payments, policy surrenders, clause interpretations, and service complaints. Many citizens find that after unsuccessful negotiations with insurance companies, they face challenges including lengthy rights protection processes, complex procedures, and insufficient trust. Fu Fan, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd., has previously stated that the company carries the principles of "finance serving the people, benefiting the people, and conveniencing the people" as its core mission, treating consumer rights protection as the cornerstone of high-quality development. In Sichuan, this translates into pushing mediation capabilities down to the front lines of insurance services. In practicing the new-era "Fengqiao Experience," the People's Mediation Committee for Chengdu Insurance Contract Disputes under the Sichuan Insurance Industry Association has leveraged its professional mediation team to establish on-site mediation studios at offline branches including Pacific Property Insurance's Chengdu Central Sub-branch in Sichuan. These studios cover consumer disputes across all insurance categories including property, life, and health insurance, charge consumers no mediation fees whatsoever, and achieve the goal of disputes being resolved within the branch premises and conflicts being settled locally.

Mediators most frequently encounter road traffic accident liability disputes and insurance contract disputes. An on-site mediator explained that different professions operate in distinct spheres, and most disputes arise from differences in claims understanding and insufficient communication, emphasizing that effective mediation requires both proficiency in insurance clauses, legal regulations, and industry practices, as well as the ability to genuinely comprehend consumers' actual demands, because both parties must achieve mutual understanding before finding a balance acceptable to everyone and promoting substantive dispute resolution. Chen Xinyu, a staff member at Pacific Property Insurance's Chengdu Central Sub-branch in Sichuan, noted that the number, quality, and professionalism of mediated cases have been improving annually, with the company's dispute resolution system transitioning from sporadic handling through single channels to a diversified, professionalized, and digitalized framework that uses industry mediation as the main thread, supported by litigation-mediation coordination, integrating online and offline approaches, and achieving province-wide coverage. The availability of convenient and efficient dispute resolution channels has enabled a substantial number of disputes to be resolved without resorting to litigation. Zhou Wurong, Deputy Director of the Consumer Rights Protection Center under the Sichuan Insurance Industry Association, reported that through mechanisms including litigation-mediation coordination, road accident linkage, and on-site company mediation, the center has proactively extended its mediation services, handling 35,000 consumer requests in 2025, reaching unanimous agreements in 8,979 cases, achieving a 77.94% processing success rate and a 100% fulfillment rate. Beyond dispute resolution, Pacific Property Insurance's Sichuan branch has pushed consumer protection work further upstream, maintaining continuous innovation across four areas including party building integrated with consumer protection, consumer protection combined with technology, public welfare, and cooperation, with consumer protection regulatory evaluations and service quality indices ranking among the top in the province from 2021 to 2025.

From Sichuan Practice To The Broader CPIC Blueprint

The Sichuan practice represents far more than an isolated local experiment; it embodies the concrete implementation by China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. (CPIC) of embedding the political nature, people-centered approach, and inclusivity of financial work throughout its business development and service processes. In recent years, CPIC has accelerated the development of its hardcore capabilities in technology finance, directing more financial resources toward technological innovation and dedicating itself to fostering the cultivation and growth of new quality productive forces. In Shanghai, CPIC collaborated with Tongji University's Shanghai Tongji Science and Technology Park to secure the city's first technology commercialization cost loss insurance policy for incubator projects, precisely addressing the pain points in commercializing university research outcomes. In Ningbo, CPIC launched "Robot Protection Insurance," the nation's first insurance product designed specifically for commercial humanoid robot applications, adopting a "risk anthropomorphization" concept that consolidates robot body damage, third-party liability, and property losses into a single policy. In Hangzhou, CPIC arranged the country's first "breeding, propagation, and promotion" technology commercialization insurance for vegetable, fruit, and flower seedlings, safeguarding their journey from laboratory to market. In Shenzhen, CPIC led the formation of the nation's first "Artificial Intelligence Industry Insurance Community," filling the domestic gap in full-lifecycle risk management for large-scale AI models. Data reveals that in 2025, CPIC provided risk protection of 67 trillion yuan to over 130,000 enterprises, with technology investment scale exceeding 130 billion yuan; in the first half of 2026, technology insurance premiums grew nearly 18% year-on-year, with numerous first-of-their-kind policies implemented in sectors including biomedicine, low-altitude economy, and embodied intelligence.

If technology insurance constitutes the "hard support" for CPIC's service to the real economy, then consumer rights protection work serves as its "soft infrastructure" for serving people's livelihoods. In 2025, CPIC focused on strengthening foundations, enhancing governance, empowering through technology, and leading through culture, continuously improving its comprehensive consumer protection system, consolidating primary responsibilities at the group level, advancing the construction of "consumer protection demonstration zones" down to grassroots levels, and guiding regional branches to proactively expand cross-sector cooperation to create exemplary models of co-construction, co-governance, and shared benefits. In 2026, CPIC has further implemented the requirements of the National Financial Regulatory Administration regarding high-quality development of financial dispute mediation, publishing a "Dispute Mediation Publicity Handbook" to help consumers approach insurance more rationally, protect their rights lawfully, and face disputes with composure, ensuring that fairness and justice reach every individual in a more tangible manner. From "Shared Insurance Protection" to consumer protection mediation, from the methodology of technology insurance to the systematic implementation of comprehensive consumer protection, the Sichuan practice represents not an isolated innovation but a natural extension of the commitment to being a responsible insurance company in specific operational contexts.