A vacuum in quality healthcare has emerged as a key challenge for the world's most populous nation, as policymakers wrestle with problems including a shortage of skilled professionals, slow drug clearance procedures and services that are unaffordable to most ordinary Chinese.
President Xi Jinping put the issue in perspective at August's National Healthcare Conference when he said it was at the heart of the country's policy-making machinery. State leaders later approved the “Healthy China 2030” blueprint, the first long-term national strategic plan for the sector since 1949.
Acquisitive Chinese firms, always sensitive to the mood of the national leadership, have been quick to add health...