Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, November 17th – Title: Providing a Sound Health and Population Foundation for Chinese-Style Modernization – An Interview with Lei Haichao, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the National Health Commission

Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Heng

The "Suggestions of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Suggestions"), adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee  HYPERLINK "https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/202510/content_7046050.htm" \t "/Users/xinding/Documents\\x/_blank" , put forward clear requirements and made important arrangements for "accelerating the building of a healthy China" and "promoting high-quality development of the population".

What achievements has my country's health and wellness sector made since the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan? What is the significance of these achievements for development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period? What are the key tasks for solidly advancing health and wellness work during the 15th Five-Year Plan period? Xinhua News Agency interviewed Lei Haichao, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the National Health Commission.

Life expectancy has jumped to the forefront of middle- and high-income countries.

Q: What achievements has my country's health and wellness sector made since the 14th Five-Year Plan? What is the significance of these achievements for development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period?

A: Since the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the Party’s leadership over health work has been comprehensively strengthened, the capacity, level, fairness and accessibility of health services have been significantly enhanced, and the health level of the people has continued to improve.

First, China has established the world's largest healthcare service system. By the end of 2024, there were 1.09 million healthcare institutions and 15.78 million healthcare workers nationwide. The three-tiered healthcare service network at the provincial, municipal, county, township, and village levels has been fully developed and improved, basically enabling residents to reach the nearest healthcare service point within 15 minutes.

Second, the public health protection network has become more robust. We have continued to carry out the Patriotic Health Campaign, promoted the Healthy China initiative, and fully implemented the 18 special actions for Healthy China. The health literacy level of residents increased from 23.2% in 2020 to 31.9% in 2024. The state provides immunization services for 15 diseases to residents, and the premature mortality rate from major chronic diseases has decreased by 10.6%. The incidence of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis B, and AIDS has continued to decline or remained at a low prevalence level, withstanding the major impact of the pandemic of the century.

Third, the reform of the medical and health system has continued to deepen. We have vigorously promoted the Sanming medical reform experience, guided various localities to adapt to local conditions, and continued to promote key reforms such as staffing, service pricing, salaries, financial subsidies, and comprehensive supervision. The central government has provided financial support to 70 cities to promote the high-quality development and reform pilot of public hospitals, further highlighting the public welfare nature of medical and health services.

Fourth, positive progress has been made in the revitalization and development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). We have adhered to the principle of giving equal importance to both TCM and Western medicine, implemented major projects for the revitalization and development of TCM, promoted the construction of a TCM service system, and enabled TCM to play a unique role in disease prevention and treatment.

Fifth, solid progress has been made in high-quality population development. Together with relevant departments and local governments, we have successively introduced a series of policies and measures to promote childbirth, such as extending maternity leave, strengthening pregnancy services, implementing personal income tax deductions for childcare, and gradually promoting free preschool education. We have established and implemented a childcare subsidy system and vigorously developed inclusive childcare services, aiming to reach 4.1 childcare places per 1,000 people by 2024.

Through unremitting efforts, the health level of the Chinese people has continued to improve. In 2024, the average life expectancy of Chinese residents reached 79 years, with an average annual increase of more than 0.2 years during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. Key indicators such as maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate have continued to improve. Major health indicators for residents have achieved the goals of the 14th Five-Year Plan ahead of schedule, ranking among the top in middle- and high-income countries, achieving relatively high service output with relatively relatively low resource input. These achievements are fundamentally due to the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core and the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. These achievements have laid a solid foundation and accumulated valuable experience for the high-quality development of the health and wellness sector during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

Looking to the future, we will focus on the health aspirations of the people, strive to provide equitable, accessible, systematic, continuous, high-quality, and efficient health services, and aim to achieve an average life expectancy of around 80 years for Chinese residents by 2030, making an important contribution to advancing Chinese-style modernization.

Prioritizing health is both the direction and the support for development.

Q: The "Recommendations" propose "implementing a health-first development strategy." How will the health system implement this strategy?

A: The plenary session outlined plans to "implement the strategy of prioritizing health development" and "improve the policy and institutional system for health promotion," which are key tasks that require in-depth research and vigorous promotion over the next five years. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "people's health is an important symbol of socialist modernization," and that "health is the 1, and everything else is a 0," highlighting the strategic position and significance of prioritizing health development. In China's modernization process, prioritizing health development is both a development goal and a support for development.

We must urge local Party committees and governments to prioritize health as a key objective for economic and social development in the coming period, improve the policy and regulatory system for health-first development, including planning, investment, governance, and performance evaluation, and strengthen the health promotion policy system with Party leadership, government guidance, social mobilization, and individual participation. Health indicators such as life expectancy and high-quality population development indicators should be included as important components of Party committee and government performance management. A comprehensive health risk factor risk assessment system should be established to accelerate the formation of healthy lifestyles, production methods, and economic and social governance models.

The health system must fully shift its focus to people's health, implementing a work policy of prevention first and primary care as the priority, moving from a focus on disease to a focus on health, and from serving patients to serving the entire population. It must manage health risk factors, effectively intervening in and controlling issues affecting physical and mental health such as weight, blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood sugar, thereby achieving a healthier and higher quality of life. At the same time, it must strengthen the dissemination of health knowledge, truly improving residents' health literacy, bringing health knowledge to every household, and making everyone an active participant and primary person responsible for their own health.

Deepening the reform of public hospitals with a focus on public welfare

Q: The "Suggestions" propose to "deepen the reform of public hospital staffing, service prices, salary systems, and comprehensive supervision with a focus on public welfare." How should this reform be promoted?

A: Significant progress has been made in the reform of public hospitals in my country, but there are still some prominent issues in maintaining and guaranteeing their public welfare nature.

To advance reform, we must take cities and prefectures as units and promote the Sanming medical reform experience in a comprehensive manner, based on local conditions. This means adhering to the reform concepts of Party leadership, public welfare, people-centeredness, and health orientation; maintaining a reform style of not shying away from difficulties and forging ahead; adhering to a reform pace of promoting reform according to local conditions and continuously iterating and upgrading; and adhering to a reform method that closely adapts to the local level of economic and social development, provides appropriate services and adequate protection for the people, and ensures sustainability.

The reform should be guided by public welfare principles, implement the government's primary responsibility for running hospitals, and adhere to the correct hospital management purpose and development direction. Specifically, this includes: establishing a dynamic adjustment mechanism for the staffing of public hospitals, making good use of vacant positions, and strengthening staffing guarantees for qualified, capable, and skilled medical personnel; establishing a medical price adjustment mechanism led by medical services, ensuring that medical prices truly reflect the value of services and technology; and improving the salary system, while implementing the "two allowances" (allowing certain actions to be permitted by law and allowing certain conditions to be met), gradually and dynamically narrowing the income gap between different levels of medical institutions, the income gap within hospital departments, and the gap in the proportion of performance-based bonuses. Salary system reform is neither simply about increasing income nor about egalitarianism, but rather about mobilizing and maintaining the enthusiasm of the medical workforce and the public welfare service principle, promoting the balanced development of medical institutions at all levels and of all specialties. Furthermore, it is necessary to strengthen the rigid constraints of planning in the allocation of medical resources, strengthen cross-departmental comprehensive supervision of medical service quality and safety, institutional operation, and the behavior of practitioners, and severely crack down on fraud and corruption in the medical field.

The "Recommendations" also made the important decision to "strengthen the operational support of county and primary healthcare institutions." Since 2009, healthcare reform policies have clearly stipulated the provision of basic operational support for primary healthcare institutions, which is also one of the current contents of the "three guarantees" at the grassroots level. County and district-level medical institutions are a key link in my country's healthcare service system. Next, we will work with relevant departments to conduct in-depth research on relevant policies to address the operational support issues of county and district-level medical institutions, and increase support to promote their stable service and development. We will also promote financial subsidies for medical institutions and weak departments that are in high demand, have low fees, and are struggling to balance revenue and expenditure, thereby promoting the healthy and sustainable development of public hospitals.

Supporting Chinese-style modernization with high-quality population development

Q: What specific measures will be taken next to promote high-quality population development?

A: High-quality population development is a crucial pillar of China's modernization. We will implement comprehensive measures across areas such as fertility, child-rearing, education, and health, optimize fertility support policies and incentives, steadily expand the scope of free education, and build a fertility-friendly society.

To promote the construction of a fertility-friendly society, we must guide young people to establish positive views on marriage and childbearing, leverage policies such as childcare subsidies and personal income tax deductions, and develop a universal childcare service system. We will further implement the early pregnancy care action and the plan to enhance the capacity for pregnancy and birth defect prevention, protect fertility, and develop integrated medical and childcare services. The childcare subsidy system has been implemented, with over 31 million people currently applying online, achieving application upon birth. Next, we will guide local authorities to distribute childcare subsidies to the public in a timely, stable, and orderly manner. The "Suggestions" propose to "deepen the pilot demonstration of childcare service subsidies," exploring further subsidies for childcare service institutions, addressing both supply and demand simultaneously to reduce the cost burden of childbirth, raising children, and education.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, my country's aging population will continue to deepen, leading to increased demand for medical care for the disabled and those with dementia, as well as palliative care for patients in the terminal stages of illness. We will strengthen scientific and technological innovation in addressing major health issues, comprehensively expand the supply of rehabilitation nursing and palliative care services in urban and rural areas, carry out health promotion actions for the elderly, strengthen health management for the elderly, improve the comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of geriatric diseases and the management of comorbidities, promote the establishment of a long-term care insurance system, advance the supply of home-based medical services and home-based hospital bed services for people with disabilities and the elderly, develop family doctor services, and better care for the elderly and people with disabilities, reflecting the warmth of public services and the progress of social civilization.