Chinese leader Xi Jinping addressed a national health and wellness conference in Beijing held on October 12 and 13, telling attendees that the period covered by the 15th Five-Year Plan will determine whether the country can reach its goal of building a "Healthy China" by 2035, according to Xinhua.
Xi, who holds the positions of general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, state president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said China should stay on a development path suited to its own conditions and work to strengthen its advantages, shore up weak points and raise the overall quality of its health services, Xinhua reported.
Premier Li Qiang delivered a closing summary, saying Xi's address answered fundamental questions about the direction and overall shape of health work and offered guidance for the years ahead, according to the same report.
Why it matters
Health has been placed among China's top strategic priorities since the 18th Party Congress, and Xinhua's account frames the conference as a stocktake as well as a forward plan. Xi said the country has built the world's largest systems for medical services, traditional medicine, disease prevention and control, and medical insurance — a scale claim that speaks to how much of the population these programs now reach.
The conference also signals where policy attention will sit during the 15th Five-Year Plan. Xi described health as having a foundational role across society and said the principle of prioritizing health must be embedded in all policies, including how plans are drawn up, how policies are designed, how projects are assessed and how construction is carried out.
Prevention, primary care and the shape of a "Healthy China"
Xi set out what the target should look like. A Healthy China, in his description, is one that is balanced, inclusive, high quality and efficient, with strong capacity in health management, disease prevention and control, medical services, insurance support, pharmaceutical innovation and workforce training — enough to meet rising public demand while key health indicators keep improving steadily.
Prevention, he said, is the cheapest and most effective health strategy. That means attending to basic, upstream work: encouraging the public to take a sound approach to their own health, guiding young people toward good study and living habits, providing healthier living and working environments, promoting fitness and leisure activity, tightening food safety oversight, and keeping the disease control system strong enough to prevent large-scale outbreaks.
On treatment, Xi called for deeper implementation of a program to reinforce the foundations of medical and health services, better positioning and distribution of health institutions, and a referral system that lets people get care close to home. He also pointed to integrated management of chronic diseases across prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and follow-up, a stronger framework for passing on and modernizing traditional Chinese medicine, closer coordination between Chinese and Western medicine, more basic and original research, faster translation of findings into products, and a larger health industry. Improving the patient experience was named as a goal in its own right.
Reform, financing and the people who deliver care
Xi identified reform as the main engine for progress and said the central thrust of medical and health system reform should be coordinated development and governance of medical services, medical insurance and pharmaceuticals. He called for full implementation of reform plans for public medical institutions, deeper reform of public hospitals with a focus on their public-interest role, and stronger operating support for county, district and grassroots facilities.
On financing, he described a multi-tiered medical insurance system, with policies on bulk procurement of drugs and consumables, insurance payment and use of funds arranged so that the insurance pool stays secure, hospitals run soundly and patients' costs remain reasonable. He also called for a solid drug supply and use mechanism, an improved national essential medicines system and strict oversight of drug quality and safety.
The workforce drew separate attention. Xi said leadership teams at health authorities and medical institutions — especially their top officials — must be well chosen, and that the country needs a medical staff that is sufficient in number, sensibly structured and well qualified. He called for stronger medical ethics, a healthier professional culture and a society that respects doctors and values health.
Looking outward, Xi said health for all is a shared global aspiration and called for work toward a global community for health, joint responses to major health challenges, deeper cooperation in the health sector under the Belt and Road Initiative, and refreshed foreign aid in health. He also said China should tell its health story well to build international consensus.
Li, in his closing remarks, listed the areas he said should receive focused attention: prevention and control of major diseases, building the referral system, improving how patients experience care, constructing a multi-tiered insurance system, drawing on the distinctive strengths of traditional Chinese medicine, health services for the elderly and for children, and using technology to support medicine and health.
What to watch next is how these priorities are translated into the 15th Five-Year Plan's health provisions and into follow-up measures from the State Council, which Li's summary indicated should be carried out without delay.
