Shake-up of China’s health reforms in the offing after top-level meeting takes national pulse

The highest-profile national health conference in two decades in China heralds a major shake-up of medical reforms, analysts say.

The conference on Friday and Saturday was attended not only by President Xi Jinping and his colleagues from the powerful Communist Party Politburo, but also by heads of the top legislature, court and procuratorate.

The meeting comes two decades after former president Jiang Zemin and the Politburo attended the first national health conference in Beijing. That gathering put health care firmly on the agenda, defining it as key to economic development and social stability.

The revival of the conference over the weekend after 20 years is a sign that medical reform is shifting direction.

Professor Liu Tingfang, from Tsinghua University’s Institute for Hospital Management, said the meeting stressed the importance of health rather than medical treatment or medical reform.