Reference News website reported on June 9 that according to a report on the website of the US "Wall Street Journal" on June 7, in the field of public health, China has kept its doors open to American-made medical supplies to achieve the goal of "entering the ranks of high-income countries in major health indicators by 2030". In the past decade, China has opened its market to advanced American medicines and recently excluded medical products from the retaliatory tariff list.

After the ceasefire of the Sino-US trade war last month, China set the additional tariff rate for American goods at 10%, with medical supplies included in the exemption list, including vaccines, diagnostic reagents, surgical adhesives, etc.

In 2016, China proposed the outline of the "Healthy China 2030" plan, aiming to narrow the gap with the West in terms of quality of life.

Data shows that foreign drugs such as Novo Nordisk's semaglutide, Pfizer's lung cancer drug lorlatinib, and Merck's cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil have been widely welcomed in China.

"The policy focus has shifted from protecting domestic industries to improving life expectancy and related goals," said Yulong Yu, a China healthcare policy analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin. "China needs the most advanced treatments in the world."

About half a century ago, the average life expectancy in China was about 60 years old. With economic development, improvement in public health infrastructure, widespread vaccination, cleaner water sources, more hospitals and doctors, the average life expectancy has steadily increased and is now about 79 years old, comparable to that of the United States.

However, urbanization and wealth growth have led to an increase in chronic diseases. About half of Chinese adults are obese or overweight. According to a recent research report published in the medical journal The Lancet, China has more than 118 million diabetes patients, nearly a quarter of the global total. Moreover, like the United States, the main causes of death in China include heart disease and cancer.

China is a major producer of generic drugs, with basic drugs and vaccines widely accessible. But Yulong Yu said that China is still in the early stages of innovation in new drugs.

China's national health insurance covers some American drugs needed for certain conditions, including Gilead Sciences' HIV treatment drugs. However, Chinese people have to pay out-of-pocket for other drugs, including Merck's cervical cancer vaccine. As the middle class in China expands, many people begin to seek advanced treatment technologies abroad.

In 2016, China announced the outline of the "Healthy China 2030" plan, with the goal of increasing the average life expectancy from 76 years at that time to 79 years by 2030. The Chinese government stated that it had achieved this goal last year. To achieve this goal, relevant departments have made efforts to promote smoking reduction, popularize physical exercise, and improve health literacy. (Translated by Liu Baiyun)

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