A corruption probe is only the latest of Chinese insurers’ woes

WANG BIN has gained the undesirable distinction of becoming China’s first “tiger” of the year. The term refers to a senior official ensnared in a corruption probe (as opposed to a “fly”, a lower-level cadre). Mr Wang, the chairman and Communist Party secretary of China Life, one of the world’s largest insurers, is a big catch. On January 8th the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, China’s corruption watchdog, announced that he was under investigation for serious violations of law and party discipline—bywords for corruption. (China Life said in a statement that it firmly supported the probe.)Conviction rates for high-profile, publicly announced investigations such as this are 100%. One of the biggest tigers of finance so far, Hu Huaibang, the former head of China Development Bank, is imprisoned for life. Another, Lai Xiaomin, the former chairman of a state asset manager, was put to death.