TRACKING THE PULSE
Stories, Sparks, Snapshots — From Our World to Yours.
NOTE: In the autumn of 2026, Vereniging Nederland China (VNC) will organize a group trip to China centred on the theme Healthy Living in China, exploring topics such as exercise, nutrition, and preventive healthcare. In preparation for this journey, our founder XiXi Wang has been invited to write a three-part series on healthcare in China for this website. In this series, Xixi Wang discusses China’s health landscape, national policy reform, modern wellness trends (spas, hobbies, lifestyles), and digitalization in wellness and healthcare. We appreciate VNC’s invitation and will keep updates on these articles as they are published through 2026.
Summary and Introduction
This article uses the story of “Uncle Chen”—who travelled four hours for care, faced long waits, and lost 40% of his annual income to medical bills—to illustrate the deep cracks in China’s pre-2016 healthcare system.
Before the “Healthy China 2030” blueprint, the system suffered from four major problems: an “inverted pyramid” that concentrated specialists and medical resources in big cities, a 15% drug markup that encouraged over-prescribing, fragmented insurance that barely reimbursed patients and couldn’t be used across provinces, and a rising wave of chronic diseases overwhelming families.
Launched in 2016, Healthy China 2030 shifted the focus from treating illness to maintaining health. Since then, key reforms have delivered tangible results:
A national family doctor program brought care closer to home.
The 15% drug markup was abolished and bulk procurement cut medicine prices.
Insurance became portable through a unified national platform and shareable among family members.
Prevention campaigns now target lifestyle changes, early cancer screening, and chronic disease management.
While challenges like uneven primary care quality and mental health gaps remain, the transformation has been remarkable. Average life expectancy now exceeds 79 years. The true test, however, will be whether Uncle Chen’s story becomes unthinkable to his grandson’s generation.
Read the full article in Dutch or in English.
IMAGE 1: Dutch version of the article; IMAGE 2: English version of the article
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IMAGE: A screenshot on ChinaNU+ webpage
