China's rampant smoking problem is not only bad for the health of its people, but might also prove detrimental to the health of the entire economy. Non-communicable diseases like cancer are taking their toll on China's workforce as they account for 80% of nation's deaths (almost 20% more than the global average), and consume 70% of all health spending. The tobacco industry alone has been implicated in the deaths of 1 million people (though the actual figure is probably substantially higher). more ›

Though it isn't necessarily the ten thousand years aimed for whenever Chinese people wish each other a long life, 82 years and six months still isn't half bad. Shanghai's residents topped the list of longest life expectancy at birth of anywhere in China last year, with the figure of 82.51 years setting a new national record, according to the Shanghai Health Bureau. more ›

Public hospitals in Hong Kong may stop admitting mainland mothers seeking to deliver their child in the territory to keep more resources for the use of local women. more ›

A controversial bill that is being proposed in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region will, if passed, make real-name HIV testing and disclosure compulsory. Under the regulation, which is still in draft form, HIV-positive patients would have to  inform their partners of their status within three days of receiving test results, failing which this would be done by health workers. more ›

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On January 1st, 2010, an old man mysteriously disappeared from a Beijing hospital, and remained missing despite an extensive search conducted by his family. Nearly one year later, in December 2010, a hospital worker suddenly discovered the man's mummified remains hidden in the hospital's sub-basement. more ›

A new study in the medical journal The Lancet claims that China's infant mortality ratehas been halved, due to campaigns encouraging women to give birth inside hospitals, rather than at home. Researchers from Peking University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine discovered that the mortality rate for babies born in hospitals fell by 62 percent from 1996 to 2008. Children were also found to be two to three times more likely to survive their first month than those born without the aid of professional medical care. The study used data compiled in the Maternal and Mortality Surveillance System, to analyze 1.5 million births that took place from 1996 to 2008. So everybody's happy at the good news, right? Well, besides the population doomsday proponents, who are probably getting antsy in their chair. They shouldn't blame the kids though, since China's population problem has little to do with them. more ›

A new report from Caixin Online states that scores of sane individuals are regularly committed to mental health institutions after going through informal diagnostic procedures, sometimes only after brief 20 minute mental health checks. Patients are then unable to leave their respective institutions due to a lack of proper oversight in verifying their mental health status. This one issue is part of a larger pattern of systemic failure in China's mental healthcare system, which includes outmoded methods and outdated attitudes in treating the mentally ill, along with a general scarcity of proper resources and funding. These images are a stark look at a darker aspect of Chinese society that rarely ever sees the light of day. more ›

As China supposedly has the world's highest antibiotics abuse rate and thus is breeding superbugs that are becoming antibiotic-resistant, a new regulation of antibiotics, drafted by the Ministry of Health, could be coming into effect as soon as Friday. An exact introduction date has not yet been confirmed, but when implemented, city-level hospitals will be allowed to offer no more than 50 types of antibiotics, while district-level hospitals will only be permitted 35. Until now, those numbers have been much higher, according to an investigation by the Shanghai Morning Post. They found that local hospitals have been offering more than 100 types of antibiotics and city-level hospitals around 60 types. As an official with the Shanghai Health Bureau told the Shanghai Daily, 50 types of antibiotics are enough for clinical requirements, as they can kill almost all known bacteria.
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This video, strange in that it's a well-produced English-language PSA-type clip directed specifically at the Chinese, covers just about every dismaying Chinese health statistic out there. Compiled from WHO, UN, and Chinese Ministry of Health data, the statistics show that apparently regardless of all the calesthenics, China is getting really fat and dying from all kinds of terrible diseases. more ›

A study funded by China's National Centre for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention found that those infected with HIV through drug use or sex, are more than twice as likely to die than those who got the virus from a blood transfusion. To be exact, 6.7 out of a 100 people infected by blood transfusions die, compared to 15.9 deaths for drug users and 17.5 for those infected through sex. more ›

See that billboard on the right? It reads "Qingming condolences to my lost wife Gao Dezhen, who passed away during labor at the No. 2 Affiliated Hospital of West China Hospital on February 18, 2011." more ›

Though our economy keeps on racing ahead, what's not captured by those record-breaking statistics are the ways other parts of our society lag behind, like the care system for the elderly and mentally impaired - there's two groups that are frequently marginalized. However, Shanghai's doing a bit more to ensure health care options are modernizing too. A recent NY Times article observes the "remarkable" shift in the care available for those with dementia. more ›

Could wolf-berry and ginseng be the answer to the AIDS pandemic or are we dealing with another wild exaggeration? A three-year medical trial at Guang'anmen Hospital, using Chinese medicine to combat HIV/AIDS, has announced a breakthrough in their studies. more ›

Be wary of your words during the next Chinese New Year family gathering, or you could find yourself with more than just a few red packets. A report put forward by the Psychosis and Social Observation and the Hengping Institute was released on Sunday, highlighting the abusive use of our healthcare system. more ›

Two million people were accepted to join China's Communist Party, bringing membership up to 78 million people, party deputy minister Wang Qinfeng said recently. The application process required writing essays expressing party support and getting recommendations from employers and current members that demonstrated strong party loyalty and "good behavior" - kind of like applying to an Ivy League. Already the world's largest political party, the CCP actually rejected 80% of membership applicants, which means 20 million would-be Communists applied. But given the fact that China employs a strict one-party system, with members receiving elite perks like career opportunities, health care and retirement benefits, it doesn't really give the 1.3 billion people of the world's most populous nation that many options. Especially if health care is still considered "a perk." more ›

Anyone who's ever been able to sample both a private expat hospital (like Parkway) and the English-speaking division of a local hospital here in Shanghai will know the almost startling price difference between the two. Now a series on Danwei is examining the insane inflation of private healthcare here in China. According to one doctor, while medical costs rise about 10~11% each year globally, in China the inflation rate can reach up to 3000%! The reason is probably the local monopoly on private healthcare by three or so companies, which is funny because - if you can get over the language barrier and the fear of local doctors, there could be so much choice available to you. more ›

Despite the rise in cancer rates and the threat of swine flu, it seems that Shanghainese people on average are living longer. The life expectancy of a person in the city has now risen to 81.73 years, eclipsing the record of 81.28 just set last year. As per the rest of the world, females here tend to live longer than males, living an average of 84.06 years compared to the regular guy's 79.42. The local government says this longevity is due to increased medical capabilities - besides old people being able to get older, the infant and maternal mortality rates have also dropped to developed nation levels. Now let's just hope that the success we've gotten in Shanghai can be replicated in the rest of the country, where the average lifespan is roughly five years less. more ›

Wow, talk about a harrowing story: a small boy outside of Beijing punctured his brain by getting a chopstick stuck four inches up his nose. Apparently the tot's mother let him play with chopsticks while she did the dishes (we hope it was a clean one that got lodged up there). The family drove for ten hours to get treatment at a Beijing hospital: luckily for the tyke, the chopstick was easily removed without massive hemorrhaging. more ›

If you've somehow avoided the news all weekend, the United States just passed a bill on healthcare reform, which is the first step in a long line towards actual change. Less well known (probably because of the lack of flashy partisan politics) is China's attempt to reform it's own healthcare system, which is a daunting task in its own way. more ›

• Black Future: The coal bosses of Shanxi are tired of being the government's whipping boys [Forbes] "One of the most reviled and reclusive villains in the Chinese economy has been the coal mine boss. The archetypal robber baron of the Chinese Gilded Age, he has been caricatured as ruthless, greedy, corrupt and uncivilized. Now the coal mine boss is casting himself as a human rights case. The government of China's coal-rich Shanxi Province, southwest of Beijing, is trying to drive almost all private mine owners out of business, forcing more than 1,500 mines to shut down or sell out to state-owned enterprises at prices so low, coal bosses say, that some may go bankrupt."
• Google's Eric Schmidt on What the Web Will Look Like in 5 Years [Read Write Web] "Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time."
• The French Connection’s China Connection [WSJ] "A French court Tuesday sentenced two businessmen convicted in the arms-for-oil “Angolagate” scandal that implicated 42 defendants including top politicians, civil servants and even the son of late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. One of the two, and a chief defendant in the case, is Pierre Falcone, who’s now in jail pending an appeal on the charges he helped arrange shipments of $790 million worth of weapons to Angola in the mid-1990s."

The fastest rising demographic of people contracting HIV/AIDS in Shanghai are "city men who have sex with men," according to Shanghai Daily. At a medical forum yesterday, experts said that the amount of HIV/AIDS cases involving these fraternizations has risen fivefold. While incidences of syphilis have remained relatively stable, the HIV/AIDS incidence rate has increased from 1.5% in 2005 to 7.5% in 2007. The forum emphasized that as society is becoming more tolerant o the LGBTa community, intervention and education initiatives should be intensified. more ›

• As Chinese art market crashes, many artists applaud [csmonitor.com] "Chinese artists were seen as ATMs," says Jerome Sans, director of the nonprofit Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. "Maybe now they'll stop creating for the market and create for the mind."
• Wine producers pin hopes on China in tough times [AFP] "Wine producers are pinning their hopes for growth during the financial crisis on a country that only recently entered the ranks of the world's top ten wine drinking countries — China. Wine bars and speciality wine stores have flourished in Shanghai, which prides itself of being the nation's most cosmopolitan city, and have quickly become part of the landscape."
• Reports: China auto sales 1.03 million in March [Forbes] "Preliminary figures show auto sales in China rose to at least 1.03 million in March, exceeding U.S. sales for the third month in a row, state media reports said Wednesday. Sales data from 14 major auto makers, accounting for roughly 90 percent of total sales, totaled 1.026 million, the state-run newspaper Shanghai Securities News said, citing Chen Bin, head of the Department of Industry at China's main economic planning agency."

• On Foot in the Mystical Mountains of Yunnan [NYTimes.com] "It was for a moment like this that I had made the long journey last fall to northern Yunnan Province from my home in Beijing — which has the dubious distinction of being both one of the most polluted and one of the most populous cities in the world. Back home, looking at a map of the rugged Tibetan areas of western China, my eyes had fallen on the deep river valleys of Yunnan, where three of Asia’s great waterways come tumbling down from their glacial sources in the mountains of the high Tibetan plateau."
• Getty’s $100,000 Tab for Chinese Photos Signals Bargain Time [Bloomberg.com] "Wang Qingsong’s theatrical, large- scale photographs have been a hit with collectors, rising in price to $864,943 from $40,000 since 2006. Now, with prices for Chinese contemporary art eroding, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has purchased three prints by Wang and six by Hai Bo, who contrasts photographs of friends and relatives taken during China’s Cultural Revolution with their recent portraits."
• Sichuan Earthquake Memorial Museum To Cost 2.3 Billion [chinaSMACK] "The complete plans for the Beichuan National Earthquake Ruins Museum that has been the subject of much attention by citizens from all walks of life have been released, with a preliminary budget requiring a ~2.3 billion yuan total investment/cost. The moment the design plan was introduced, it immediately caused huge amounts of heated discussion from all walks of life in society. Some netizens have questioned whether using vast amounts of money to construct a museum amounts to an “image project.”"

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star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur, the new graffiti king in town, Bill Cosby's adorable dog, and the disturbing tale of a yoga instructor who was found guilty of killing his girlfriend, a dancer from Ohio who stripped to make ends meet. more ›

• Rumor: Chinese Xbox 360 in "next few months" - Joystiq
  Microsoft is in talks with Chinese internet providers and government ministries for a possible Chinese New Year launch.
  (tags: Microsoft Xbox360 games gaming internet computers China)
• Foreigners working in Shanghai might get new government health care service
  The city government is considering offering health insurance to foreigners working in Shanghai, alleviating problems for those whose work does not offer health insurance or who are temporarily unemployed.
  (tags: healthinsurance China Shanghai health hospital medical foreigners)
• Stores to close during Metro work -- Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 -- English Window to China News
  Stores in the Xujiahui stop maybe closed for as long as a year.
  (tags: Xujiahui Shanghai metro subway stops fashion stores construction)
• Police net heroin and suspects after stakeout -- Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 -- English Window to China News
  One kilogram of high-grade heroin seized in Minhang. There are going to be some pissed off junkies out there tonight.
  (tags: heroin minhang drugs shanghai police)
• Fears over culture survey -- Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 -- English Window to China News
  Chinese people are turning their back on Chinese! English more popular than Chinese among students! The soul of China is the David fighting against the merciless Goliath of Western cultural imperalism!
  (tags: Shanghai China english culture west language learning)
• Winter is the season when the "tree barbers" get to work
  You've probably noticed people cutting off branches of the trees along the side of the road.
  (tags: trees Shanghai winter)
• Explosion at hotel, several injured, journalists and bystanders attacked.
  Gas leak causes explosion in Shanghai. Journalists attempting to report are harrassed, attacked. One bystander, an old man, also gets slapped up by hotel staff.
  (tags: hotel shanghai explosion media journalists)
• Shanghai residents earned most in 2006
  "Shanghai residents' salaries rose by 7.7 percent on average in 2006, ranking at the top of all Chinese cities in terms of salary growth."
  (tags: shanghai china salaries income)
• All Roads Lead To China » Are Chinese Exporter’s Really Suffering?
  "What the author failed to consider is the fact that a hat manufacturer has little in terms of barriers to entry, lots of competitors, and with 4 million units sold, I would have a hard time believing they are able to convince anyone to pay more than a co
  (tags: china export exporters yuan RMB)
• Pacific Epoch - Popular Blogging Actress To Launch E-magazine
  "Chinese actress, director and blogger Xu Jinglei will release a biweekly electronic magazine called Kai La, reports Shanghai Youth Daily quoting Xu's agent Liu Xuan."
  (tags: china internet blog blogging xujinglei)
• Quake prompts tsunami fears -- Shanghai Daily
  "A TINY tsunami lapped Shanghai's coastal areas on Saturday night after a massive earthquake off Japan trigged fears of tidal waves across the Pacific." Tiny tsunami?
  (tags: china shanghai weather tsunami earthquake)
• Provincial bigwig gets death, two-year reprieve -- Shanghai Daily
  "A FORMER high-ranking provincial official in east China's Anhui Province has been sentenced to death for corruption, according to media reports."
  (tags: china anhui corruption)

We are beginning to tire of starting off posts with what seems to be an ongoing Chinese soap opera (sans “Da Shan” scandal) with Tanghui -- but it seems to be something every weekend. Just in case you left before the end of the Second Hand Rose show, word on the streets says you missed "the man” coming in and taking away the drum set (or part of it, at least) from the controversial rockers (yes, the cops came in and took the band's drums ... or at least that is what we have heard ... from reliable-although-likely-slightly-intoxicated sources). Always impressive when any band draws more heat than Top Floor Circus (Saturday’s opening band known for showing their, erm, openings). more ›

An article from Interfax tells of a Southern Metropolitan Daily opinion piece that was written in response to the Ministry of Health Mao Qun'an's comments to the effect that the media was covering medical and health issues irresponsibly by creating reports that are unbalanced and unobjective. Well, the folks at Southern took issue to that, but of course, replying to accusations from an official is not for the squeamish, so they worded their reply quite cautiously: more ›