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Published by ChinaMNC · Jiang

China’s Health-Sector Priorities Through “15th Five-Year Plan”: What Foreign Founders Should Watch

A practical briefing for foreign founders on the national health conference held in Beijing on 12–13 October, the priorities set for the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, and what the direction of China’s health and healthcare sector could mean for companies registering or operating in China.

What Happened

China’s national health conference took place in Beijing on 12–13 October. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended and delivered an important speech. Li Qiang delivered a concluding speech. Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi also attended.

For foreign founders, the event matters less as a ceremonial occasion and more as a signal of policy direction. The speech set out how China intends to develop its health and healthcare sector during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, which the source describes as critical to reaching the goal of building a “Healthy China” by 2035.

The Core Message

Xi said China will unswervingly follow a path of health and healthcare development with Chinese characteristics, implement the health and healthcare work policy for the new era, build on strengths, consolidate the foundation, address shortcomings and strengthen weak links, promote high-quality development of the health and healthcare sector, continuously raise the people’s health level, and ensure decisive progress in building a Healthy China.

The speech described people’s health as an important marker of a prosperous nation and a strong country. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Central Committee has placed the protection of people’s health in a strategically prioritized position, established the health and healthcare work policy for the new era, and made major decisions and arrangements to build a Healthy China. According to the source, this has helped build the world’s largest medical service system, traditional medicine system, disease prevention and control system, and medical security system, with historic achievements and all-round progress in the health and healthcare sector.

The “Healthy China” Being Built

Xi described the Healthy China being built as balanced, inclusive, high-quality and efficient. It should have strong capacities in health management, disease prevention and control, medical services, medical insurance support, pharmaceutical innovation and talent cultivation, be able to effectively meet the people’s growing health needs, and see major health indicators steadily improve.

For founders, this suggests that policy attention is likely to remain on the breadth and quality of the health system, not only on expanding hospital capacity. The listed capacities — including health management, disease prevention, medical services, insurance support, pharmaceutical innovation and talent — indicate where the government sees the system needing strength.

Health Priority in All Policies

Xi said the health and healthcare sector plays a overall and foundational role, and that the health priority development strategy must be firmly implemented. Protecting people’s health should be integrated into all policies and reflected in all aspects of work. In planning, policy design, project appraisal and engineering construction, the impact on people’s health should be considered first.

For foreign founders, this is a reminder that health-related considerations can reach beyond the health sector itself. A company operating in China may encounter health-impact considerations in areas such as project approval, site planning or policy design, depending on its activities. The source does not specify how these considerations are applied in practice, so companies should treat this as a direction of policy rather than a fixed procedural rule.

Prevention and Public Health

Xi said prevention is the most economical and effective health strategy. The source lists several priorities: carrying out basic and source-level health work in detail, guiding society to adopt a correct view of health and effective health self-management, guiding young people to develop good study and living habits, creating a good ecological and living environment, encouraging national fitness and healthy leisure, strengthening food safety supervision, and improving the disease prevention and control system to guard the bottom line of preventing large-scale epidemics.

These priorities touch areas that can involve private-sector activity, including food safety, fitness and healthy leisure, and disease prevention. However, the source does not set out market-opening measures, licensing changes or specific opportunities for foreign investment.

Medical Service Quality

Xi said comprehensively improving medical service levels is a key task in building a Healthy China. The source lists: implementing a project to strengthen the foundation of medical and health care, optimizing the functional positioning and structural layout of medical and health institutions, promoting hierarchical diagnosis and treatment so people can get medical care nearby, strengthening comprehensive prevention and control of chronic diseases, improving the full-chain service of prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and management, improving the mechanism for inheriting and innovating traditional Chinese medicine, strengthening coordination and integration of Chinese and Western medicine, strengthening basic research and original innovation in health and healthcare, promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, expanding and strengthening the health industry, and optimizing the medical experience to improve convenience and satisfaction.

The reference to expanding and strengthening the health industry, and to transforming scientific and technological achievements, is among the few parts of the source that directly mention industry development. It does not give targets, incentives or eligibility rules.

Reform of Medical, Insurance and Pharmaceutical Systems

Xi said reform is a strong driving force for the development of the health and healthcare sector. The main direction of reform of the medical and health system is to promote coordinated development and governance of medical care, medical insurance and pharmaceuticals. The source lists: fully implementing the reform plan for medical and health public institutions, deepening public hospital reform oriented toward public welfare, strengthening operational support for county, district and primary-level medical institutions, building a multi-level medical security system, optimizing policies on centralized procurement of drugs and consumables, medical insurance payment and use of funds, improving the drug supply guarantee and use management mechanism, improving the national essential medicines system, and strengthening drug quality and safety supervision.

For foreign founders in pharmaceuticals, medical devices or health services, these are policy areas that can affect market access, procurement and payment. The source does not provide details on how foreign companies are treated under these measures.

Talent and Professional Standards

Xi said protecting people’s health requires strengthening the cadre and talent team in the health and healthcare system. The source calls for selecting and strengthening leadership teams, especially top leaders, at competent departments and medical and health institutions at all levels; building a medical staff team of sufficient size, reasonable structure and good quality; strengthening medical ethics and professional conduct; and fostering a social atmosphere of respecting doctors and valuing health.

International Cooperation

Xi said health for all is a common vision of humanity. China will actively promote the building of a global community of health for all, jointly address major challenges in health and healthcare, and continuously improve the health and well-being of people of all countries. The source also mentions deepening cooperation in health and healthcare under the Belt and Road Initiative, strengthening and innovating health foreign aid work, and telling the story of Healthy China well to further build international consensus.

For foreign founders, this points to continued official interest in international health cooperation, but the source does not announce specific cooperation projects or commercial terms.

Li Qiang’s Concluding Remarks

Li Qiang said Xi’s important speech answered a series of fundamental, directional and overall questions about health and healthcare work, is highly thoughtful, strategic and guiding, and points the way and provides important guidance for health and healthcare work in the new era and on the new journey. He called for careful study and understanding and full implementation.

Li said it is necessary to strengthen ideological and action consciousness and unswervingly follow the path of health and healthcare development with Chinese characteristics; firmly establish a health-first orientation and promote coordinated development of people’s health and the economy and society; adhere to the public welfare nature of basic medical and health care and consolidate the foundation of health for all; persist in paying equal attention to ensuring basic needs and improving quality to better meet the people’s diverse health needs; and deepen reform, innovation and opening-up cooperation to continuously enhance the driving force and vitality of health and healthcare development.

He also called for focusing on pain points and bottlenecks in the health and healthcare sector, highlighting matters of urgent concern to the people, doing a good job in major disease prevention and control, advancing the construction of the hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system, optimizing the people’s medical experience, building a multi-level medical security system, fostering the unique advantages of traditional Chinese medicine, handling health services for the elderly and children, promoting technology-enabled development of medicine and health, and laying a solid foundation for building a Healthy China.

What This Means in Practice for Foreign Founders

The source is a high-level policy speech, not a set of implementing rules. It does not announce new foreign investment rules, registration procedures, tax measures or licensing requirements. Founders should therefore treat it as background on policy direction rather than as a compliance checklist.

That said, several themes may be relevant when planning or operating a company in China:

Foreign founders should also note that the source does not address company registration, foreign investment negative lists, data compliance, pharmaceutical registration or medical device approval. Those matters are governed by separate rules and procedures, and the source provides no details on them.

Who Attended

The source states that the meeting was attended by members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and members of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission, relevant leading comrades of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, state councillors, the procurator-general of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and relevant leading comrades of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. It also states that leading comrades of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities with independent planning status, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, relevant departments of the central and state organs, relevant people’s organizations, some central enterprises, relevant departments of the Central Military Commission organs, and representatives of experts and scholars attended.

Key Takeaway

The conference reaffirmed a long-term policy direction for China’s health and healthcare sector during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period. For foreign founders, the practical value is in understanding the themes that senior policymakers are emphasizing — prevention, primary care, insurance, pharmaceutical innovation, traditional Chinese medicine, talent and international cooperation — while recognizing that the source does not provide specific rules for foreign companies. Any concrete business decision should be based on the relevant laws, regulations and implementing measures, not on this summary alone.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.

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General information only, not legal or tax advice.