Xi leads efforts toward building Healthy China

BEIJING -- On a small island in the Yangtze River in eastern China, residents don't need to leave the island to see a medical specialist. They can now access modern medical equipment at the township clinic and consult specialists from higher-level hospitals, who pay regular visits to the facility.

In December 2014, President Xi Jinping visited the clinic in Shiye township, Jiangsu province, outlining a path for advancing rural healthcare. Shiye is home to five villages and more than 10,000 permanent residents.

"We must shift the focus of healthcare to the community level, channel more medical resources to local communities, and promote equal access to basic public services in urban and rural areas," said Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

This is to provide people with safe, effective, accessible and affordable public health services and basic medical care, and effectively address the difficulties and high costs people face in accessing medical care at the local level, he added.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in late 2012, the Party Central Committee, with Xi at the core, has given strategic priority to ensuring people's health. It made the major decision to advance the Healthy China Initiative nationwide.

From targeted advances in key areas to nationwide coverage of inclusive health services that meet basic needs, China, a country of more than 1.4 billion people, has blazed a path of inclusive and balanced health development.