China’s foreign health aid_ history, challenges, perspectives, and policy recommendations

Abstract

Health aid is integral to both China’s foreign aid and foreign policies. Over the last six decades, China’s health aid has grown in both diversity and scale. As a result of ever fiercer jostling between great powers and the further globalization of healthcare in the twenty-first century, China now faces challenges that relate to increasing both the scope and influence of health aid, bringing it under unified management, ensuring a steady supply of medical workers, and efficiently spreading proven national experience. As a responsible great power, China has therefore made a series of new commitments and proposals regarding foreign health aid in the new era and establishing the long-awaited national international cooperation agency dedicated to the overarching policy-making and management of foreign aid. Nevertheless, further developing national strategies, legal frameworks, decision-making and management mechanisms, and a holistic model for aid while deepening engagement with international cooperation are also essential for China’s future health aid reform.