When China's president, Xi Jinping, visited the US, he spoke on China-US relations, in the city of Seattle where he said, "We need to foster friendly sentiments among our people and people-to-people relations underpin state-to-state relations."

One perfect example of this might be George Hatem, an American doctor who traveled to China in 1933 and spent more than five decades saving Chinese lives and who said, "When the entire world is suffering, personal issues become nothing significant."

Primier Zhou Enlai remarked when Hatem joined the Communist Party in 1937, "He is a good friend of the Chinese people," and Hatem had a Chinese name "Ma Haide", and married an elegant Chinese woman, Zhou Sufei and was the first foreigner to become a Chinese national. In fact, his humanity and spirit and professional ethics as a medical worker moved the entire country and earned him the name of "people's doctor".

In his early 20's, Hatem wanted to study tropical diseases in China for a year with two classmates at the University of Geneva, and when their project ended, instead of returning to the US Hatem went to Yanan, a remote, backward place that was the base of the Chinese revolution and he knew that people needed him.

He was never afraid of hardships and did his best to save lives. During the war, he moved his clinical team from six kilometers from the front line, right up to the front, which greatly decreased the loss of blood in injured soldiers but increased the risks to his staff. And Hatem treated more than 40,000 wounded soldiers from 1944 to 1947.

After the war, Hatem dedicated himself to eliminating leprosy in China and visited many rough areas in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Yunnan province, Guizhou province, Sichuan province, and Tibet autonomous region and visited many countries to raise $10 million in funds in 1986.

In May of 1988, five months before his death, Hatem, who suffered from cancer, and just discharged from hospital and travelled to Canada to check on fundraising for leprosy prevention. His wife said that he insisted on attending a conference on leprosy and passed out during the trip.

Mao Qun'an, director-general of the National Health and Family Planning Commission's Dept of Communications gave a speech on studying "Ma Haide Spirit" on Sept 29. [Photo by Liu Yiyi for China Daily]

More recently, when Mao Qun'an, director-general of the National Health and Family Planning Commission's Dept of Communications, asked medical personnel to be professional, show integrity, and practice ethnics even under hazardous conditions and referred to the "Ma Haide Spirit". Mao went on to say, "The country has sent more than 1,000 medical workers to fight against Ebola in Africa. As President Xi said during his meeting with US President Barack Obama, China will push medical cooperation with the US in facing infectious diseases such as Ebola."

Mao concluded by saying, "This history of medical aid to Africa is half a century long and the country has sent more than 20,000 medical staff and treated more than 200 million Africans. There were also 50 medical workers who sacrificed their lives in Africa. Such activities are sound examples of international humanity."

So, just as President Xi said in Seattle, we will never forget the moral support and invaluable assistance the American people gave us in our resistance against aggression and our struggle for freedom and independence. George Hatem is a role model for modern Chinese medical personnel and in friendly sentiments between China and the US.