And still they wait. Foreign insurance companies have long reserved their seats at the Chinese banquet table. Well aware the free lunch concept is a fallacy, they have paid for the room, the waiters and the silver service, all in slaverish anticipation of the dish of their dreams. So there they sit, licking their lips expectantly for a slice of the China insurance pie.

Some have been unable to resist, like British insurance brokers Sedgwick and Jardine Lloyd Thompson, who in 1999 nibbled illicitly at the crust, only to have their greedy fingers rapped by the maitre d', the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC).

Most companies would welcome the threat of stricter surveillance-at least it would signify they were already in business. So far, only 15 foreign insurance companies have secured licenses to sell policies in China, from more than 100 firms to have established representative offices.

Chinese WTO membership, which may now be delayed by several months, would start the clock on a firm timetable of market opening; Shanghai and Guangzhou on accession, followed by 12 other cities in two years. Industry players also predict that a definite date for accession will force China to keep its promise to European insurers. Beijing sweetened the bilateral trade agreement concluded last May with the offer of seven licenses to insurers from European Union members. Only two have been granted. And the deadline was last July.

For the Chinese government, insurance is proving the definitive WTO dilemma. Financial services are among the most contentious sections of China's painful passage to membership of the global trade club. The authorities recognize the need for outside expertise; but they stall for time to restructure and strengthen domestic firms, before letting hungry foreigners loose on the life savings of the Chinese people.