US health, commerce joint delegation visits China

Jiang Xingguang

(en.nhfpc.gov.cn)

Updated: 2016-10-21

Top leaders of China's national health watchdog body met with a US delegation in Beijing on Oct 17, exchanging ideas on the health system and market of both countries.

Li Bin, minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), welcomed the visiting group led by Mary Wakefield, acting deputy minister of the Health Resources and Services Administration in the US, and Bruce Andrews, deputy secretary of Commerce in the US, saying that cooperation between China and the US in the health sector has a long history.

Li Bin (center) and Cui Li (right), top leaders of the National Health and Family Planning Commission meet with the visiting US delegation on Oct 17 in Beijing.

Over the past few years, high-level visits from the health departments in both countries have been frequent, according to Li, adding that cooperation in the pharmaceutical industry and medical science sector are extensive. 

China and the US jointly fight against the Ebola epidemic, and exchanges in the health sector have become an important part of the strategic and people-to-people dialogue for both countries. 

Li gave a brief about health reform achievements in China since 2009, and the outline of the Healthy China 2030 Initiative. 

She expressed her wishes for deepening mutual learning and bilateral cooperation in global health issues. 

Cui Li, deputy minister of the NHFPC, welcomed the US delegation and encouraged more US medical apparatus and instruments producers and pharmaceutical enterprises to settle in China. 

She also expressed her wishes for traditional Chinese medicine to keep growing in the US. 

The US delegation said they hope the two countries can boost the development of the health sector and continue striving to safeguard the global health security. 

Max Baucus, US ambassador to China, and representatives from US pharmaceutical enterprises also joined the meeting.