On December 18, Lei Haichao, Director of the National Health Commission and Secretary of its Party Leadership Group, published an article in the People's Daily titled: "Accelerating the Building of a Healthy China—Studying and Implementing the Spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee." Below is a summarized overview and the full text of the article.

Article Summary:

The health of the people is both an important hallmark of socialist modernization and a shared aspiration of the broad masses of the population. The “Suggestions of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development,” adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee (hereinafter referred to as the “Suggestions”), makes the major strategic decision to “accelerate the building of a Healthy China.” This decision will have a profound impact on enhancing the health and well-being of the people and advancing Chinese-style modernization. We must deeply grasp the essence of this spirit, accurately understand the guiding principles and requirements, and earnestly implement all tasks.

I. Deeply recognize the significant strategic importance of accelerating the building of a Healthy China.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made a series of important statements, instructions, and directives on building a Healthy China, providing clear guidance and fundamental principles for advancing this endeavor. The Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has formulated and implemented the Healthy China Strategy, convened the National Health and Wellness Conference, established the Party’s guiding principles for health and wellness work in the new era, and issued the “Healthy China 2030” Planning Outline. As a result, China has built the world’s largest medical service system, the largest traditional medicine system, and the largest disease prevention and control system, covering both urban and rural areas. Moreover, China has achieved remarkable historical accomplishments in health poverty alleviation and COVID-19 prevention and control. As a result, key health indicators such as life expectancy per capita among Chinese residents have risen to among the top ranks of middle- and high-income countries. At the 20th National Congress of the CPC, building a Healthy China was identified as one of the overarching goals for basically achieving socialist modernization by 2035. The 15th Five-Year Plan period represents a critical phase for laying a solid foundation and making comprehensive efforts toward basically achieving socialist modernization. We must, from the perspective of fully promoting the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese-style modernization, deeply recognize the profound significance of accelerating the construction of a Healthy China.

(1) Accelerating the building of a Healthy China is a major strategic task that bears on the overall process of Chinese-style modernization. Throughout the historical journey toward achieving the “Two Centenary” goals, developing the health sector has consistently occupied a foundational position, closely aligning with the nation’s overarching strategy and playing a vital supporting role. Health is both an objective of development and a cornerstone for its advancement. A high level of national health not only provides sustainable human resources for economic and social development but also helps strengthen our country’s comprehensive national power and boost national pride. The “Suggestions” explicitly call for “accelerating the building of a Healthy China,” which will surely rally broad societal support for safeguarding people’s lives and health, injecting powerful momentum into ensuring decisive progress toward basically achieving socialist modernization.

(2) Accelerating the building of a Healthy China is a major strategic decision that is crucial to promoting common prosperity for all the people. Chinese-style modernization is modernization aimed at achieving common prosperity for all the people. The “Suggestions” prominently emphasize in their guiding principles: “Promoting the all-round development of individuals and taking solid steps toward common prosperity for all the people.” Providing equitable, accessible, systematic, continuous, high-quality, and efficient medical and health services to the people is an important manifestation of common prosperity. As the economy and society develop and demographic patterns change, the multi-level and diversified health needs of our residents will continue to evolve, and issues such as relatively weak primary-care services and insufficient capacity in grassroots and central-western regions still require ongoing improvement. We must accelerate the building of a Healthy China, achieve greater progress in promoting health equity, lay an even stronger health foundation for basically realizing socialist modernization, and rally powerful forces to drive common prosperity for all the people.

(3) Accelerating the building of a Healthy China is a crucial guarantee for gaining strategic initiative amid the profound global changes unfolding over the past century. Today, the world is witnessing an accelerated evolution of these unprecedented changes, and the global health governance system is undergoing profound transformations. Major infectious disease outbreaks and biosecurity issues have become key factors—indeed, among the most influential ones—shaping and even reshaping the global landscape. The “Suggestions” identify “strengthening the national security barrier” as one of the important development goals for the economy and society, clearly outlining tasks such as “expanding high-level opening-up to the outside world” and “providing more international public goods.” These requirements call upon us to accelerate the building of a Healthy China with greater historical initiative and proactiveness, deeply engage in and lead global health governance, expand cooperation in the health sector under the Belt and Road Initiative, solidify our public health and biosecurity defenses, and promote the construction of a community of common health for mankind. This will provide robust support for advancing Chinese-style modernization and vividly demonstrate to the international community the practical application of our country’s institutional strengths in the field of health and well-being.

II. Accurately grasp the overall requirements for accelerating the building of a Healthy China.

The 15th Five-Year Plan period occupies a pivotal position in the process of basically achieving socialist modernization, serving as a bridge between the past and the future. To accelerate the building of a Healthy China, we must ground ourselves in China’s actual conditions, accurately grasp the guiding principles, policy orientations, and strategic requirements, and ensure that all policies and measures remain highly consistent with the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core.

(1) Firmly uphold the working principle of upholding orthodoxy while promoting innovation. We must unswervingly take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as our guiding ideology, uphold the Party’s overall leadership, adhere to the public welfare nature of the health-care sector, persist in following a path of health and wellness development with Chinese characteristics, coordinate the supply-demand relationship in health services, and integrate high-quality domestic development with global health governance—these principles are fundamental, directional, and long-term in nature, and must never be shaken in the slightest under any circumstances. At the same time, we must keep pace with new trends in the development of the times, meet new demands arising from practical developments, and respond to the fresh expectations of the people, continuously proposing new measures to implement and carry out the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, thereby better safeguarding and promoting the health of the people.

(2) Firmly grasp the Party’s guiding principles for health and wellness work in the new era. This is a fundamental requirement for advancing health and wellness efforts in the new era. We must consistently adhere to the following principles: “prioritize grassroots-level work, drive progress through reform and innovation, emphasize prevention, give equal weight to both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, integrate health into all policies, and ensure that the people jointly build and share health benefits.” We must coordinate effectively the major internal and external relationships involved in the high-quality development of health and wellness, implement a health-first development strategy, strengthen policy coordination and synergy, harness the enthusiasm of participation from all sectors of society, accelerate the equalization of basic public health services, the homogenization of basic medical services, and the regional balance in the allocation of medical and health resources, and strive to provide the people with equitable, accessible, systematic, continuous, high-quality, and efficient health services.

(3) Firmly grasp the stage-specific requirements of consolidating the foundation and making comprehensive efforts. From now until 2035—when a Healthy China is to be fully realized—there remain 10 years. We must focus on addressing the principal contradiction of uneven and inadequate development in health and medical services, adhering to the combination of an effective market and a capable government; upholding the principles of doing our utmost within our means and acting according to our capacity; and following the approach of establishing new systems before dismantling old ones—and refraining from dismantling any system without first establishing a replacement. We must continuously strengthen the foundational underpinnings of China’s distinctive basic medical and health system, make all-out efforts to narrow service gaps among urban and rural areas, regions, and population groups, and exert greater effort to improve and refine the medical and health service system that safeguards public welfare, as well as its operational support and oversight and management mechanisms. In this way, we can firmly establish a comprehensive, full-lifecycle defense line for safeguarding people’s lives and health.

(Four) Firmly grasp the working principle of closely integrating investment in physical assets with investment in people. The “Suggestions” explicitly state the need to “reasonably increase the proportion of public service expenditures in fiscal expenditures” and “strengthen investment in human resource development and the all-round development of individuals.” To adapt to the evolving trend of investing in people, we must refine and improve policy measures in the health sector. We should explore ways to enhance, on the supply side, the staffing and salary guarantees for medical personnel, their capacity-building efforts, the establishment of special positions, and talent cultivation and training. On the demand side, we should expand the provision of public health and fertility support services and raise the level of medical security, thereby providing crucial support from the health sector for China’s modernization with Chinese characteristics.

(5) Firmly grasp the working approach of overall coordination and integrated planning. Promoting the construction of a Healthy China is a systematic undertaking that requires properly managing a series of major relationships, including those between government and market, efficiency and equity, development and security, prevention and treatment, traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, upholding core principles and fostering innovation, as well as domestic and international dimensions. It calls for coordinated efforts among different departments and close cooperation between central and local authorities, ensuring that various policies complement each other and that all initiatives resonate in harmony. We must fully take into account local economic conditions and the development status of other industries, rationally guide expectations, proactively identify and address major risks and hidden dangers, and safeguard the overall stability of the economy and society.

III. Fully implement the key tasks for accelerating the building of a Healthy China.

To accelerate the building of a Healthy China, we must focus on achieving the 2035 goals and ensure that all tasks are effectively implemented. By 2030, we will strive to raise the average life expectancy of Chinese residents to around 80 years and bring our key health indicators into the ranks of high-income countries.

(1) Implement a health-first development strategy. Improve the policy and regulatory framework for health-first development, covering planning, investment, governance, and performance assessment. Establish a sound policy system for health promotion featuring Party committee leadership, government guidance, broad social mobilization, and active individual participation, continuously enhancing both per capita life expectancy and overall health levels among residents. Encourage Party committees at all localities to prioritize health promotion as a key objective for high-quality economic and social development, incorporating changes in per capita life expectancy, infant and child mortality rates, maternal mortality rates, control of infectious and chronic diseases, and the development of childcare services into the performance management systems of Party committees and governments. Advance legislation on health impact assessments. Promote the comprehensive establishment of systems for monitoring, surveying, and risk assessment of diseases and health risk factors across localities. Integrate health education into the national education system, significantly enhance the effectiveness of the Patriotic Health Campaign, accelerate the formation of lifestyles, production methods, and socio-economic governance models that are conducive to health, and ensure that health performance consistently ranks ahead of other economic and social development indicators on the global stage.

(2) Strengthen public health capacity. Thoroughly summarize the experiences and best practices gained in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, and enhance capacity building in infectious disease surveillance and early warning, laboratory testing, epidemiological investigation, emergency response, and medical treatment. Improve the joint prevention and control mechanisms, promote social co-governance, synergistic integration of medical care and disease prevention, and boost the ability to detect major infectious disease outbreaks early and respond rapidly. Strengthen the construction of the disease control and prevention system and continue to empower disease control institutions. Enhance capacity building for health emergency response and comprehensive drills in dealing with sudden public health events. Vigorously cultivate strategic talents with interdisciplinary expertise in medicine, disease prevention, and management. Advance the development of a multi-dimensional and efficient pre-hospital emergency medical rescue system, and comprehensively enhance the capacity to ensure blood supply. Improve the mental health and psychiatric service system, strengthen occupational health risk prevention and control, and bolster the development of professional talent teams.

(3) Deepen reform of public hospitals with a focus on public welfare. Fully roll out the Sanming healthcare reform experience at the prefectural and municipal levels, improve mechanisms for coordinated development and governance involving medical care, medical insurance, and pharmaceuticals, and promote tiered diagnosis and treatment. Guided by public welfare principles, ensure that hospitals assume their primary responsibility for running medical institutions, adhere to the correct mission and direction in hospital management, and advance dynamic adjustments to staffing levels in public hospitals as well as pricing mechanisms that reflect the true value of medical services. While implementing the “two allowances” salary system, also promote the “three structural adjustments” (gradually and dynamically narrowing income gaps between medical institutions of different levels, reducing income disparities among internal clinical departments within hospitals, and increasing the proportion of performance-based bonuses). Strengthen the binding nature of planning in the allocation of medical resources, enhance cross-departmental comprehensive oversight of medical service quality and safety, institutional operations, and the conduct of healthcare professionals, and severely crack down on fraudulent practices, insurance fraud, and corruption in the pharmaceutical sector. Strengthen operational support for county-level and grassroots medical institutions, providing financial subsidies to those institutions and underperforming departments that serve socially necessary but lower-revenue-generating populations, thereby promoting their stable development and ensuring implementation of policy-based loss compensation. Reinforce the incentive and regulatory role of medical insurance payments in tiered diagnosis and treatment, guide and standardize out-of-town medical care practices, improve the efficiency of medical insurance fund utilization, and support public welfare objectives. Vigorously develop commercial health insurance, encourage private hospitals, Sino-foreign joint venture hospitals, and wholly foreign-owned hospitals to pursue complementary development alongside public hospitals, and effectively integrate them with commercial health insurance. Coordinate policies related to medical insurance and centralized drug procurement, support the development of innovative drugs and medical devices, vigorously foster new productive forces in the pharmaceutical industry, and expand into overseas markets.

(4) Implement the Project for Strengthening the Foundation of Medical and Health Services. Optimize the functional positioning and spatial layout of public hospitals, and foster collaborative partnerships among eastern, central, and western regions, as well as between urban and rural areas and among county-level regions. Guided by the principles of "strengthening the grassroots, solidifying the foundation, and ensuring basic services," and oriented toward equity, accessibility, and quality and efficiency, we will consolidate and enhance the grassroots healthcare network. We will promote distributed examinations at township or community-level medical and health institutions, centralized diagnosis at county- and district-level hospitals, and mutual recognition of examination and test results. By 2027, we aim to achieve full coverage of tightly integrated medical consortia at the county level and closely-knit medical groups in urban areas. We will improve basic service conditions, encourage the gradual downward deployment of technology, management, and personnel from higher-level medical institutions to support grassroots facilities, continue carrying out regular mobile medical services by tertiary hospitals to support counties with weak resources, advance the digital and intelligent transformation of national health services, and upgrade equipment and facilities at grassroots medical and health institutions. We will optimize the provision of basic services by continuously improving specialized medical services in pediatrics, mental health, emergency care, general practice, traditional Chinese medicine, infectious diseases, pathology, rehabilitation, and nursing. We will also enhance the accessibility of cataract diagnosis and treatment and hemodialysis services at the county level. We will implement initiatives such as the “Ten Thousand Doctors Supporting Rural Health” program, the free enrollment and training of medical students under targeted rural order programs, the special post program for general practitioners, and a special program for college students serving as village doctors. We will dynamically adjust and optimize the content of basic public health services, fully implement measures to ensure that family doctor contracts deliver tangible benefits, and leverage the role of family doctors as “gatekeepers” of health.

(5) Develop a comprehensive, end-to-end service system for disease prevention, treatment, and health management. As the disease burden caused by chronic diseases becomes increasingly prominent, we should take major chronic diseases—such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases—as entry points to comprehensively develop prevention, treatment, and health management services and strengthen their effective integration. Implement initiatives promoting healthy lifestyles, reinforce healthy weight management, enhance lifestyle guidance and daily health management for key population groups, improve the early-screening, early-diagnosis, and early-treatment system, and strengthen the integrated approach to preventing, treating, and managing multiple diseases simultaneously. Systematically integrate prevention and treatment services provided by acute-care hospitals, rehabilitation institutions during the recovery phase, and primary-level medical and health institutions. Expand the supply of rehabilitation and nursing services, refine the first-visit responsibility system and inter-hospital and inter-clinic referral mechanisms, increase medical insurance support throughout the entire prevention, treatment, and health management process, enhance service continuity, and reduce the risk of chronic disease onset, progression, disability, and mortality among the population.

(6) Promote the inheritance and innovation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Continue implementing major projects for the revitalization and development of TCM, and improve the integrated service system that combines TCM and Western medicine. Advance the establishment of integrated centers—emphasizing both TCM and Western medicine—in the construction of National Medical Centers and Regional Medical Centers. Strengthen the development of talent pools specializing in “Western medicine learning TCM,” enhance the setup of TCM clinical departments in comprehensive hospitals, and launch the construction of “flagship” hospitals and “flagship” departments for collaborative TCM-Western medicine care. Deepen clinical collaboration between TCM and Western medicine in the treatment of serious and complex diseases. Implement a project to promote TCM culture, carry out the identification and protection of TCM classics, technologies, prescriptions, and the experience of renowned veteran TCM experts, and accelerate the exploration and transformation of TCM preparations, time-tested prescriptions from famous physicians, and classic prescriptions in medical institutions, thereby expanding and strengthening the TCM industry. Launch the “Shennong Tasting Hundreds of Herbs in the New Era” initiative, intensify the exploration and utilization of global plant resources with medicinal value, speed up the pace of TCM’s “going global,” serve the world, benefit humanity, and actively promote the establishment of a global alliance of traditional medicine organizations in Beijing, fostering the integration and convergence of traditional medicines and injecting greater vitality and playing a more significant role in the new era.

(7) Promote high-quality population development. Establish and improve a population service system that covers the entire population and spans the entire life cycle. Guide young people to adopt positive attitudes toward marriage and childbearing, optimize and refine policies such as maternity insurance, maternity leave, and free preschool education, and leverage the impact of policies like childcare subsidies and personal income tax deductions. By addressing both supply and demand, carry out in-depth pilot programs for childcare subsidies, develop an inclusive childcare service system, effectively reduce household costs associated with childbirth, parenting, and education, and enhance the overall quality of the population, including health literacy. Strengthen health services for women and children, continue the "Pediatric Service Year" campaign, and implement thoroughly initiatives such as early pregnancy care programs, plans to enhance reproductive capacity, and programs to improve the prevention and control of birth defects. Develop integrated medical-educational and medical-care services, launch initiatives to promote elderly health, strengthen health management for older adults, enhance capabilities in comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of geriatric diseases and management of comorbidities, introduce long-term care insurance, and extend home-based medical services and hospital-at-home services to persons with disabilities and the elderly, thereby promoting healthy aging.

(8) Strengthen the capacity and work style of the healthcare workforce. Comprehensively enhance medical personnel’s engagement in grassroots services and continuing medical education, intensify training in medical humanities, laws and regulations, and medical history, and improve the overall service capabilities of all types of healthcare professionals. Raise the level of diagnosis and treatment of common and frequently occurring diseases as well as emergency and critical care for patients at county- and district-level hospitals; enhance the ability of primary-level medical staff in emergency first aid and standardized management of chronic diseases; and attach great importance to doctor-patient communication and interaction. Show care and concern for medical personnel. Implement regulatory responsibilities at all levels, strengthen Party building within healthcare institutions, and establish sound mechanisms for grassroots Party organizations to participate in major decision-making. Deepen efforts to simultaneously investigate and address both corruption and misconduct, and vigorously tackle unhealthy practices and corruption issues that directly affect the public. Guide healthcare workers at all levels to consciously uphold the noble professional ethos and the great spirit of fighting the epidemic; give full play to the active role of grassroots Party organizations and Party members; promote fine medical ethics and conduct; tell positive stories; recognize outstanding individuals; and strive to create a clean, upright, and uplifting industry environment.