How the state gets grip on housing, education and health care – Arthur Kroeber

 

Arthur Kroeber

The Chinese state is extending its grip on previously private investments in different areas like housing, health care, and education, similar to its crackdown on tech sectors in the past, says leading economist Arthur Kroeber to Reuters. Investors now prefer to turn to those industries, as they have the state as a backup.

Reuters:

China’s recent sweep of the medical sector came as a shock to many investors who had thought the end of Beijing’s three-year regulatory purge of the property and tech sectors meant there would be no more industry-wide crackdowns as policymakers prioritised economic recovery.

Several government bodies in July launched a year-long anti-corruption campaign into the medical system, making clear that China’s drive to deliver affordable housing, education and healthcare to its masses was more important.

That forced many investors to quickly draw parallels with last year’s crusade against private tutoring and a long-running one against tycoon Jack Ma’s consumer finance firm Ant Group.

The one unanimous conclusion they came to was that Beijing wants a greater state presence in these sectors.

“The underlying principle is that healthcare is kind of like a social service that should principally be in state hands,” said Arthur Kroeber, partner and head of research at Gavekal in New York. Kroeber says the crackdowns are about “defining what the state does, what the private sector does, and creating a more limited sandbox for the private sector to play in.”

“This links to the idea of common prosperity because it’s the state’s job to guarantee a level of provision of basic services, whether it’s education or healthcare, so it’s important for the state to have a role,” he said.

That has left investors now picking the state over the private sector.

More in Reuters.

Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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How to catch a fast-changing China after the coronacrisis - Shaun Rein/Ashley Dudarenok

Shaun Rein, interviewed by Ashley Dudarenok

An even faster shift to online, domestic tourism and health care related activities. Business analyst Shaun Rein sums up how China is changing faster after the corona crisis is over, in an interview with Ashley Dudarenok. Are international brands even more leverage to domestic brands, both wonder. And interesting details on US rumors.

Shaun Rein and Ashley Dudarenok are both speakers at the China Speakers Bureau. Are you looking for one of them for your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form. 

Are you looking for more experts on China after the corona crisis? Do check out this list. You can also send an email to get added to our Zoom-account.

China's top health care firms do very well - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

The coronavirus might have put pressure on many industries, the top healthcare companies in China do very well, says Rupert Hoogewerf, chief researcher of the Hurun Report in Laingbuissonnews.com. Healthcare is the third largest industry for non-state controlled companies in China, after manufacturing and real estate.

Laingbuissonnews.com:

The average value of the Top 100 most valuable private healthcare companies in China is US$6.5bn, according to The Hurun Research Institute’s new “Hurun China 100 Most Valuable Private Healthcare Companies 2020” list. The cut-off to make the list was US$2.1bn. 

“Coronavirus has thrown the spotlight onto China’s top healthcare companies. Six companies from the Hurun Top 100 saw their share price up by half between January 20 and February 28, led by medical product business Allmed, which doubled in value, and followed by respiration equipment provider Yuyue, which rose 62%. Expect to see some of these companies continue to grow as the virus spreads around the world,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report. 

He went on to explain that China’s top healthcare companies are now worth five times that of five years ago. 

“China’s privately controlled healthcare companies are much more valuable than their state-controlled counterparts. The largest state-controlled healthcare business, TCM investment platform Changchun High &New Technology Industries, currently valued at US$13.8bn, would not have made the Top 10,” said Hoogewerf. 

Healthcare is the third largest industry for non-state controlled companies in China, after manufacturing and real estate.

More at Laingbuissonnews.com

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Positive, confirmed and unclear coronavirus developments

As the severe economic challenges caused by the coronavirus or Covid-19 show a less favorable development, scientists still argue on how to count patients, and how to assess the medical situation. Revealing was an article in Nature discussing the difference between positive-tested patients and confirmed ones, and how to count them in must-quoted public statistics.

Those debates have a profound impact on the assessment of the disease, the fear for mortality, government action and in the end how long the economic standstill might last. 

Positive-tested patients mostly used a nasal test and got - if the result shows corona-related results - a 14-day quarantine to see if they would really develop symptoms, while they might not be sick or contagious at all. Confirmed patients have the disease, are put into isolation. The debate is which groups should be counted in the official statistics. The first group does include a large group of patients who will never develop the disease, so you get a pretty high number of patients in your statistics, and a rather low mortality. The second group has a much higher mortality, but you might also miss cases of patients who do not yet have confirmed symptoms, but can develop the disease later.

Either approach has pros and cons, but the problem is that both methods have been used next to each other and cause severe differences in the number of patients and the mortality for the virus. Western media have sometime been accusing China of hiding the real impact of the virus, but there seem also profound scientific assessments underlying different ways of counting patients.

That is a key scientific debate, but also has a profound impacts on the fallout of the Covid-19 disease. For China and its international trade relations damage has already been done, but a rising number of cases elsewhere - like South Korea, Singapore and Japan - signal a possible spread of the virus, depending on the way governments react on the latest scientific debates.

At this stage, for China, we do not see a fast recovery. Yes, it may become better after the virus has come under control, but before production, logistics, tourism and regular business practices have been restored, we might well be late in the summer of 2020.

In our event-related business we expect that even if in April planning is back on track, it might easily take two to three months to get things running again. And then we do not take darker scenario's into account, while come of our clients obvious do.

Do you want to discuss latest developments on the coronavirus and China, and how the China Speakers Bureau can help you in planning future events? Do get in touch.

Why China's health care apps are failing - Jeffrey Towson

Jeffrey Towson

Thousands of mobile apps have tried to tap into the poorly organized health care system in China. They failed, despite massive funding, says Beida business professor Jeffrey Towson at his weblog, because the developers knew more about mobile phones than about health care. Health care is modernizing, he writes, but government supervision hampers speed.

Jeffrey Towson:

More than a thousand Chinese healthcare apps have been launched in the past five years. These startups, targeting the seemingly super-hot intersection of booming smartphone usage and modernizing healthcare, were supposed to be the next big thing. And many have been backed by top venture capitalists and leading Chinese companies such as Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings  and Ping An Insurance Group. 

But as of yet, there have been few real successes in Chinese mobile health. In fact, most health apps have failed to generate significant numbers of active users, let alone produce much revenue. And forget about profits. 

Now as investor sentiment in the idea cools, many of these startups are cash poor and heading towards a painful shake out. Chinese healthcare appears to have defeated China’s smartest entrepreneurs. 

There are lots of reasons for this. But at the simplest level, investors just knew a lot more about China’s smartphone market than its healthcare system.... 

In my opinion, absent big, immediate changes in the core structure of SOE hospitals and government insurance, the best target for Chinese health apps is consumers and consumer-facing businesses. They should essentially bypass the core hospital system and go direct to consumers. Focus on ancillary services such as dentistry, medical tourism, optometry, beauty and aesthetics, and health and wellness. Do e-commerce for OTC products – and for prescription products when that becomes allowed. Basically, sell directly to Chinese consumers who have money and smartphones and want better healthcare now. 

Looking at the big picture, it is clear that Chinese healthcare is in fact modernizing. And the changes that have been happening have been quite dramatic. But this is modernization under government direction and with a mix of business, political and social objectives. So the speed of China’s healthcare modernization is slow and step-by-step. And this has created a mismatch with the rapid pace expected by mobile health app startups and their venture capital investors. This difference in pace is the fundamental problem for these apps. And it will probably not end well for most of these startups.

More at Jeffrey Towson's weblog.

Jeffrey Towson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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How to push ahead with private hospitals - Jeffrey Towson

Jeffrey Towson

Medical reform in China has been lagging, and private hospitals hardly play a role, because patients to not trust them, and medical staff does not want to leave state-funded career. Beida business professor Jeffrey Towson explains on his weblog what could be a road to reform, with the help of investment bankers.

Jeffrey Towson:

I argue the shortest path to this situation is to merge 200 existing small public hospitals under a large and well-run commercial SOE. Hence my argument for investment bankers. 

We let the M&A bankers start rolling up smaller public hospitals into 5-10 big SOE hospital chains. Pull 100-200 small state-owned (and not particularly well-run) hospitals together under one well-managed commercially-focused SOE (there are several). And then let that group knit the hospital mix together into a functioning and modern chain. 

One SOE that comes to mind for this type of SOE consolidation strategy is China Resources. They have done exactly this in other sectors (beer, retail). This approach would also create a clear role for private money in public hospitals: to finance the deals, provide incentives and upgrade facilities. Nobody is going to invest private money in today’s small, stand-alone SOE hospitals. But a larger the SOE M&A roll-up could attract private capital. 

And my biggest argument for this approach is it doesn’t require fighting or replacing the entire existing system. Private hospitals and insurance can then develop slowly in parallel.

More at Jeffrey Towson's weblog.

Jeffrey Towson is the co-author of The One Hour China Book (2017 Edition): Two Peking University Professors Explain All of China Business in Six Short Stories

Jeffrey Towson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau.  Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.
Are you interested in more stories by Jeffrey Towson? Do check out this list.

Private health insurance: lacking impact - Jeffrey Towson

Jeffrey Towson

While health care insurance has been high on China´s political agenda, the impact of private insurance is still very limited, writes Peking University professor Jeffrey Towson in the Asia Nikkei. Before turning to possible solution, he paints the grim picture.

Jeffrey Towson:  

Local and foreign insurers are lined up to fill this gap but the opportunity remains tantalizingly out of reach. Efforts in private health insurance have been stymied by regulatory constraints; by too few real private secondary care hospitals; by poor consumer awareness of health insurance; and by inaccessible, limited and non-standardized medical data for underwriting and pricing. 

Chinese consumers are becoming wealthier and more sophisticated in their expectations for healthcare. A survey last year by consultancy McKinsey & Co. of some 10,000 Chinese consumers found an increasing focus on eating healthier and safer food, practicing preventive medicine and playing sports. This growing focus on healthy living is great for healthcare and hospitals even if bad for KFC. 

Healthcare demand is also increasing as the population ages. Plus, as China develops, chronic diseases common to developed countries, such as diabetes and obesity, are becoming more common. Overall, the demand for healthcare keeps growing. 

Meanwhile, Chinese public hospitals remain overcrowded, have questionable financial incentives and are often criticized for poor service. While public insurance extends to 95% of the population, this coverage is actually very patchwork. Users are frequently required to pay 10%-35% of the cost of inpatient care. Coverage is limited with most private facilities and many treatments and medicines, especially for cancer, excluded. So despite "universal" social insurance, Chinese consumers still pay over 50% out of pocket for their care. 

There is a "significant increase in the awareness and demand for private medical treatments in China," said Neil Raymond, CEO of Pacific Prime, an insurance advisory company based in Hong Kong. "This means if you have the money, and more and more people do, then you will pay to go to good private facilities." 

This growing gap between supply and demand can be seen in the long lines outside of top Chinese hospitals virtually every day. It can be seen in the numbers traveling to Hong Kong, Singapore and California for care. It can be seen in families' continued hoarding of cash for medical emergencies. It can also be seen in the record number of attacks on hospital workers every year in China.

Possible scenario´s in the Asia Nikkei.

Jeffrey Towson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

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Health care and pensions firmly on China´s agenda - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

China´s rich are changing the country´s agenda as the aging population focuses on health care and pensions, in the past often taboo subjects, says Hurun chairman Rupert Hoogewerf to FinNews Asia, after his research institute released another report. As the number of rich increase, so does they influence on the economy.

FinNews Asia:

Every wealth segment in China showed double-digit growth, flouting an economic slowdown, thanks to a surge in property prices in major Chinese cities, according to the latest «Hurun» Report. 

China's high-net worth individuals, or those with more than 10 million yuan, grew by 10.7 percent on the year, or roughly 1.34 million people in total... 

A shift in personal interests reflect the fact that China also faces an aging demographic: healthcare displaced finance and investing as the top concern for wealthy Chinese. Sports was second, and the wealthy also expressed an interest in tourism and traveling as well as current events and news. 

As a result, China's rich are taking an increasing interest in their old age and providing financially for themselves: nearly all of them – 95 percent – believe that social security won't meet their needs, and have taken out commercial insurance in order to maintain a lush retirement lifestyle. 

«Social stigmas of retirement are also gradually shifting, such that Chinese high-net worth individuals are willing to discuss the topic, especially with the recent health 'craze'», Hurun chairman Rupert Hoogewerf said. 

Increasing numbers of Chinese, especially women, are spurning traditional skinny images for more toned and beefed-up fitness looks, an indication that views on healthcare are changing.

More in FinNews Asia.

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

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The slow reform of health care - Sara Hsu

Sara Hsu

Reform of the health care is high on the political agenda, but to eradicate the massive inefficiencies will prove to be tough, writes analyst Sara Hsu in the Diplomat. "Some reforms, however, will take longer than others, particularly improving the quality of health care and changing patient views regarding local and private hospitals."

Sara Hsu:

The elimination of drug markups is to address the problem of excessive dependence on pharmaceutical income faced by hospitals. China’s leadership has committed to eliminate the mark-up on drug sales in hospitals over the next two years. County-level pilot programs eliminating the markup have faced losses, as an important source of income has been cut, even in the face of increased government subsidies and reduced price controls to hospitals in the initial pilot program. Prefecture-level cities are next as test regions before the reform becomes widespread. Government spending on hospitals is encouraged; currently, government expenditure in the area accounts for 5 percent of GDP. 

Price controls on drugs also present a problem for both patients and pharmaceutical companies. China is the third-largest consumer of pharmaceutical products in the world. 

Price restrictions have, in some cases, led to shortages in production of vital low-cost drugs. The rollout of guaranteed supplies of widely used drugs was carried out in 2014 to ensure the availability of low-cost drugs and pediatric drugs. In addition, price caps on 280 basic medicines manufactured by Western pharmaceutical companies and 250 medicines made by Chinese companies were lifted. China has also pledged to further lift price controls on medicines to promote innovative drugs. 

Public hospitals face challenges in providing care to those who need it. To combat this, the number of private hospitals has been on the rise, especially since China lifted restrictions on foreign investment in private hospitals in 2012. Smaller and financially challenged public hospitals have also faced privatization. However, private hospitals still provide less than 10 percent of total health care services. Patients are less familiar with private hospitals, which often have fewer qualified physicians and weaker local government financial support. The State Council has sought to expand use of private health care services to 20 percent in 2015. 

Public hospitals are also overwhelmed with demand because patients often tend to travel to larger hospitals even for mild health problems, neglecting local community-level medical institutions. The State Council has emphasized the necessity of increasing the quality of healthcare in local medical institutions. The National Health Family Planning Commission plans to address this issue soon to build up a multi-tier treatment system with two-way referrals. 

Health insurance is also on the reform agenda. Although China currently has almost universal health insurance coverage, limitations abound, particularly for those with severe illnesses. Public health insurance is basic, while private health insurance is underused. To encourage use of private health insurance, the government has announced a pilot plan to give tax breaks to private health insurance policy holders. Policyholders will be able to deduct 2,400 RMB per year from assessable income for health insurance premiums. 

China’s health care system is fraught with inefficiencies that the leadership is attempting to address. The active reform process undertaken by the State Council and the National Health and Family Planning Commission indicates that over time, these inefficiencies may be eliminated. Some reforms, however, will take longer than others, particularly improving the quality of health care and changing patient views regarding local and private hospitals. Yet these are essential components of building a modern society.

More in The Diplomat.

Sara Hsu is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

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How bribes enrage China's patients - Zhang Lijia

+Lijia Zhang 

Violence used by patients against doctors has hit the headlines a few times. Author Zhang Lijia can understand from her own experience how the culture of bribes drives patients to desperation, she tells in KTEP.

KTEP:

As a teenager in the 1980s, Lijia Zhang worked in a missile factory where the state provided all health care. The system was incredibly wasteful. Zhang, who wrote about her experiences in the memoir Socialism Is Great, recalls medicine was so plentiful, workers used to throw pills at each other for fun. 

China shifted from a command economy to a more market-oriented one and turned hospitals into profit-driven ventures. A few years ago, Zhang says, an anesthesiologist shook her family down for bribes over surgery for a cousin, who was dying of leukemia. 

"He demanded about $3,300," Zhang recalls. "My cousin's family was poor. We all had to chip in money. The reason we paid the money is we thought the operation was very dangerous. We thought if we didn't pay, it may jeopardize the health of my cousin." 

After paying bribes, if a surgery goes badly, many patients are understandably enraged.

More in KTEP.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout

Is president Xi Jinping going to win the fight against corruption? +Chao Pan, +Steve Barru and +Harm Kiezebrink discussed at the +China Weekly Hangout on October 31 how the drive against corruption and political survival mix with each other. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.


On Monday 11 November shadow banking expert Sara Hsu will be discussing the latest developments in the +China Weekly Hangout and give her view in an upcoming hangout on what we can expect in the months to come, and hopefully has already some idea of what the Third Plenum will lead to. Broadcasting time will be 5pm CET, 11am EST and (unfortunately) midnight at Beijing time (but you can watch the session also later). Questions will be asked by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau. There will be no other guests in the hangout - unless you have some very good arguments. But questions can be asked during the event, from our event page here. 

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Poor health care and education force rich to emigrate - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

China's super rich massively try to get foreign passports, but it is not because of fear for government interference, discovered business analyst Shaun Rein in 36 interviews. China's rich go abroad because of the poor health care and poor education, he writes in CNCB.

The two main reasons wealthy Chinese took foreign passports were for education and health care reasons. Having foreign passports made it easier to secure visas to seek medical care. 

Some families reported wanting to send children to international schools in China, an option off limits to Chinese passport holders. China’s weak education system made some families want to send kids abroad to study... 

Severe pollution and a stressful life were two other reasons why wealthy Chinese migrated or were thinking about it. One wealthy Beijing women named Mrs. Wang said, “I am so worried about my son’s health.  Rashes cover his face because of pollution.  We are considering moving to America or Canada while keeping our business in China.  Three million dollars only buys tiny apartments in Shanghai but mansions in North America.”

 More in CNBC Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Legal reform and more needed for innovation - Paul French

 Paul French

The lack of an independent legal system is holding back China's innovative power; protecting the rights of entrepreneurs and innovators is key, business analyst Paul French tells in NPR. And then there is social welfare, health care pensions and a few other things.

"If you're going to innovate, if you're going to be entrepreneurial, if you're going to create and invent things, you need a legal system that can protect your invention," says Paul French, who works for the Shanghai consulting firm Access Asia and has lived in China for nearly 20 years.

"The government should take the lead on that, and an independent legal system needs to be able to do that, and to respect the rights of entrepreneurs and innovators," he says. "And at the moment, that is simply not the case here."

French says that intellectual property rights is one of many issues that need to be dealt with if China is going to move up to the next level.

"The big picture would be the environment; the big picture would be social welfare — health care and pensions," he says. "Then it would be education, and the ability for students and academics to challenge the consensus, to challenge the official version of things."

Continuing down his list of reforms needed in China, French says, "We need to have freedom of the press, so that confidence in the stock market can be maintained. We're going to need better ethical and corporate governance, and that's going to mean a lot more transparency, both from government and from corporations."

Any one of those issues on its own would be hard enough to reform; the fact that China needs to address all of them is a monumental and risky task. Modern Chinese society is simply becoming too complex to be contained within the old political and social framework.

More in NPR

Paul French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting and conference, do get in touch.

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Health care under the knife - Janet Carmosky

Old people's home in Shanghai

The reform of the health care is one of the core changes China is going through. Janet Carmosky summerizes her insight on the health care system for Forbes, as a preparation for an upcoming conference on the subject in June. Current price tag: USD 173 bn.

Health care reform in China has to reflect a sea change in demographics and social structure. For thousands of years, until the start of the one-child policy in 1979, the glue in China’s health care was a clan system where healthy and strong family members took care of the sick, the young, and the elderly. Increasingly, China’s workforce is made up of people without siblings. They have rising income but the responsibility of taking care of themselves, their aging parents, and a child of their own. The health care implications are numerous...
Why should American business pay attention? In general, it’s a good time for companies with experience in healthcare finance, IT and informatics; drug and device design and marketing; and healthcare facilities design, marketing, and management to look for an opening in China.

More in Forbes.

Janet Carmosky is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

Image by Fantake via Flickr

Janet Carmosky

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Please pay Chinese doctors more - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

One of the root causes for corruption in China is that government officials, doctors and others get a very low pay. Shaun Rein describes in Forbes why the idea of ending up in a Chinese hospital sometimes keeps him awake at night:

Why is there so much corruption in China's health care system? Part of the problem is that doctors make so little. A brain surgeon named Dr. Xie at a famous hospital complained to me that he officially made only $400 a month, which is less than many factory workers now get. Doctors can't make money legally, he lamented. Some 95% of hospitals are state-owned, and the government caps consultations at $2 to $3 even for the country's most famous doctors, so that even peasants can afford to see the best ones.

Patients keep on paying their doctors bribes, so they can get the best possible help. While in the industry, salaries are going up, in hospitals and in government wage developments do not keep up with those developments and inflation. Keeping the costs low for patients, is one of the reason hospitals cannot pay a decent salary. Shaun Rein gives the examples of the San Francisco police department and the Singapore government, where decent salaries halt corruption and improve the quality of the services. Shaun Rein:

There was shock last year when one official's diary detailing his sexual escapades hit the Internet. People were shocked not that he had taken bribes to pay for weekly visits to hookers but that those bribes had totaled only $10,000 over many years. They thought the amount would be much greater.

More arguments in Forbes.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Hu Jintao, China's most prominent diabetes patient - Paul French

Paul French by Fantake via Flickr

President Hu Jintao is China's most prominent diabetes patient, but with 120 million obese - and counting - he is certainly not alone, tells Paul French, co-author of Fat China, to Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei TV. Chinese are getting more of everything and lost control of their diet, just like people in the West, only later. "We would have loved to blame McDonald's or KFC for it," says Paul French, "but we cannot."

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Paul French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.


Fat China! Paul French talks about obesity in China from Danwei on Vimeo.

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Expanding waistlines in China

China's citizens see a fast expansion of their waistlines and on Thursday 12 July Paul French will talk about "Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines Will Change a Nation" at the British Chamber of Commerce.

From the invite:

From a situation 20 years ago when diets were limited by food availability, and famine was still a recent memory, China'surban centres have seen alarmingly rising rates of obesity: Across China 7.1% percent of adults are obese and 22.8% (more than one fifth) were overweight. Throughout the country an estimated 200 million people out of a total population of around 1.3 billion were overweight (over 15%). This rate rises to nearly 20% in China's major cities. In the past decade, the number of Chinese defined as overweight increased 39%, and the number deemed clinically obese by 97%.China's economy has boomed, but a potentially disastrous side effect, along with pollution and a growing income gap between urban and rural regions, is the effects obesity will have on the country's fragile health care system. Today's fat kids in China can look to a mixed future of bright economic hopes for their country, and poor and deteriorating health for themselves.

The details:

Thursday 12th July 2007, 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Venue: Mesa & Manifesto, 748 Julu Lu, T: 6289 9108

Cost: Member: RMB 120, Non-member: RMB 140

Pay at the event

Contact Detailsariel.wang@sha.britcham.org

Paul French is also part of our upcoming Speakers' Bureau and if you are interested in getting him as a speaker, do drop us a line.

Dr. Gao Yaojie accuses

"They are not addressing the root cause," AIDS-activist Gao Yaojie accuses the government of doing not enough to help to stop the blood selling, causing massive killing. "Because I'm from Henan it is seen as a Henan-problem, but it is everywhere in China."
Here is part one, part two, part three, part four of the movie. Included the interview (with translation into English). (h/t China Digital Times)

Dying Guangdong pigs worry the world

A mysterious disease is killing Guangdong pigs at least by the hundreds and the authorities have been celebrating their May holiday, not giving any information, writes the New York Times. In a scenario that looks very similar to that in 2003 when SARS hit the world.

officials in Hong Kong, at the World Health Organization and at the Food and Agriculture Organization said Monday that they had been told almost nothing about the latest pig deaths and that they had been given limited details about the apparently unrelated problem of wheat gluten contamination.

Chinese media have not been reporting about the issue, as far as I could notice.

The brewing tea-for-urine scandal

No shortage of nice stories these days. I have not yet blogged about the tea-for-urine scandal that emerged in the hospitals in Hangzhou, but could have happened everywhere in China. Investigating reporters handed in ten tea samples in stead of urine for testing in ten Hangzhou hospitals. Five got the advised to take a rather expensive treatment for an ailment they did not have.
"Patients have become the ATM-machines for the hospitals," the Southern Metropolis Daily commented.
That is of course no news: the health care is badly organized in China. Doctors get a too much salary, so they are inclined to make money on the sales of medicine and expensive treatments. Of course the doctors and the hospitals are to blame, but also the government seems to be unable to deal with this rather key industry in many people's lives.
This is going to have a long tail too. No wonder in some cities medical staff has to wear protective helmets against angry patients and their families.

Would you do a brain scan in China?

A good friend just passed by, his face somewhat in tatters. A few days ago he fell while playing soccer in Beijing on the tarmac and was a few seconds unconscious. Now he needs to get a brain scan, since he still feels a bit dizzy and his family wants to be sure nothing is wrong.
Now, there is no shortage of brain scanning equipment in the Chinese hospitals. Doctors love to buy it, since it is a fast way to get some money under the table. Only nobody uses them, because they are too expensive. The doctors have very little experience and lack the skills of interpreting the results. So my friend decided to go to Hong Kong for the scan, despite the extra costs.
What would you do?