China's National Development and Reform Commission, the Financial Regulatory Administration and the Civil Aviation Administration have jointly set a timetable to build a regulated low‑altitude insurance market, with a preliminary mandatory liability insurance system for unmanned aircraft to be in place by 2027 and a fuller policy framework by 2030. The implementation opinion, issued in February 2026, lays out measures that tie insurance to flight approvals, push insurers to develop products across the drone life cycle and call for new data platforms to support underwriting and claims.
The plan treats low‑altitude insurance as a core element of the broader "low‑altitude economy" — the industrial ecosystem that includes micro and small drones used in agriculture, surveying, logistics, urban management, emergency response and recreational activities. Authorities want insurance to play multiple roles: loss compensation, operational risk management, and an incentive to raise safety standards, while discouraging illegal or unregistered flights.
Practically, the policy requires provincial and sectoral regulators to fold insurance into safety rules and into administrative checkpoints such as flight approvals. The CAAC is to make sure that insurance status is verified before operations are authorised, and that proof of cover will be checked during flight oversight and accident handling so that insurance compliance becomes a precondition for legal flying.
Regulators expect insurers to expand offerings beyond simple third‑party liability: product development should cover R&D and testing, manufacturing, flight operations, infrastructure, cyber and data risks, environmental and human‑factor risks, and export credit or product liability for overseas sales. The Financial Regulatory Administration is expected to issue model policy clauses and guidance, while a national low‑altitude insurance information platform will be built to feed actuaries, underwriters and supervisors with flight, meteorological, geographic and risk‑relevant data.
For the drone industry, the shift is both an opportunity and a constraint. Larger manufacturers and logistics operators will face higher compliance costs but gain clearer risk allocation and access to conventional insurance and reinsurance markets. For start‑ups and smaller operators, regulators signal support — encouraging micro and lightweight drone owners to buy affordable coverage and urging local governments to craft subsidies or supportive policies where needed.
The scheme also recognises institutional limits. Regulators flag risks of insurance fraud, capital strain on insurers, and the need to build actuarial capacity for novel risks. They call for steady, market‑driven expansion of offerings, strengthened supervision of insurers' capital and operational risk, and the use of tech to automate underwriting and claims for low‑value drone policies.
Internationally, the move will matter to foreign manufacturers and insurers engaged in China’s drone market. Clearer domestic liability rules and standardised policy clauses could ease market entry for overseas suppliers and support exports, but they also create compliance hurdles tied to China’s airspace governance and data‑sharing expectations. The emphasis on linking insurance to flight approvals signals how Beijing plans to marry economic development of low‑altitude airspace with tighter regulatory control.
The introduction of mandatory liability cover and a dedicated data platform aims to professionalise a sector that has grown fast and sometimes chaotically. Whether the policy succeeds will depend on how quickly insurers can price unfamiliar risks, how effectively local authorities enforce the "insure‑then‑fly" rule, and whether the state offers bridge measures for small operators so that safety rules do not become entry barriers to innovation.