Chengdu 2021 FISU World University Games (The Games) is less than one week away. The City of Chengdu is ready to welcome athletes from all over the world, as evidenced by the vibrant torch relay, the signals of steady preparation from press conferences, and abundant cultural exchanges and sports activities.

To better provide medical services during the Games, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) experts from Sichuan Province Orthopedic Hospital and Sport Hospital of Chengdu Sport University arrived at the FISU Games Village on July 10 in the final preparation for the upcoming Games. TCM has played a unique role in major sports events in Sichuan, as local TCM doctors provide athletes with one-stop services ranging from injury prevention, treatment to rehabilitation.

"During the Games, Sichuan will remain committed to its unique advantage of using TCM in medical services and culture promotion. Sichuan TCM will contribute its share to the Games and dazzle the world with its charm," said Tian Xingjun, Secretary of the Party branch and Head of the Sichuan Provincial Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He added that in accordance with the overarching principle of focusing on specific areas for big breakthroughs, Sichuan will take this international event as an opportunity and leverage the "Ten Actions" of Sichuan province with strong TCM industry for high-quality development of TCM, relevant industries and the TCM culture.

Sichuan TCM empowers the Games

Since 2021, the Sichuan Provincial Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Sichuan Provincial Overseas Chinese Affairs Office have jointly launched "Tianfu Yunyi Medical Station" to benefit overseas Chinese. Five stations of this kind have been built in Barcelona of Spain, Buenos Aires of Argentina, Madrid of Spain, Milan of Italy, and Paramaribo of Suriname. More and more overseas Chinese have started to pass down and spread TCM culture.

Sichuan has enhanced people-to-people and cultural exchanges of TCM with participating countries of the "Belt and Road" cooperation, promoted TCM "health tourism plus international medical services", and built national bases for traditional Chinese medicine services export faster. Overseas TCM centers continue to boost traditional Chinese medicine services. Special activities were successfully held, such as the online Sichuan-Nepal TCM Exchanges Conference and the "Qihuang and Medical Herb from Sichuan-Introducing Sichuan TCM to Local Foreign Consulates". During international interactions, Sichuan has an increasingly stunning business card featuring TCM.

For a long time, Sichuan TCM has also played a unique role in international sports events. Sichuan TCM doctors have provided athletes with one-stop services ranging from injury prevention, treatment to rehabilitation. Their presence can be seen in almost all the National Games of China, the Asian Games, the Olympic Games, and other international sports events since the 1962 FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship sixty years ago.

Chengdu 2021 FISU World University Games is around the corner. Providing medical services for the Games is also a pivotal practice in spreading TCM to the world. The composite sports medicine support team of Sport Hospital of Chengdu Sport University arrived at the FISU Games Village with other medical personnel on July 10. For the past week, the team has been busy working out relevant plans on response, diagnosis and treatment for various sports injuries, preparing items and equipment, and conducting full-process training. They go all out to provide the Games with perfect, professional and accurate medical services that are in line with international standards.

Actions in many areas and deeper progress in growing a demonstration area and a strong TCM province

"Behind the continuous optimization of Sichuan's TCM management system is Sichuan's unremitting efforts to be a qualified first runner in the national demonstration area for TCM comprehensive reform via "trying", "innovation" and "actions." Tian Xingjun said. 

In April 2022, Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government set up the Sichuan Demonstration Area for Promoting national TCM Comprehensive Reform and the Leading Group of Building a Strong Province in Traditional Chinese Medicine, with the principal leader of the provincial government as the head and main leaders from 24 provincial departments as the group members. The province aimed to coordinate its efforts in establishing the TCM demonstration area and a strong TCM province.

In May 2022, the 12th Sichuan Provincial Party Congress put forward the implementation of building a strong TCM province and advancing the demonstration area for national TCM comprehensive reform. Since then, the second and the third plenary meeting of the 12th Sichuan Provincial Committee, Sichuan's Provincial Two Sessions and preparation meetings for advancing TCM in the whole province all made significant deployments for building the demonstration area.

In August 2022, the Sichuan Provincial Government issued the Implementation Plan for the Construction of the National Demonstration Area for TCM Comprehensive Reform, the only document that was issued in the name of a provincial government among 7 national demonstration areas. The Implementation Plan specifically provides that Sichuan will develop "four paradigms" of management, guarantee, services and industries, build up "three highlands" of technological innovation, talent and culture, and implement "two projects" featuring regional coordination of TCM and coordinated development of TCM and Chinese medicinal herbs, drawing an ambitious blueprint for developing a demonstration area and a strong TCM province. 

Cohesion and cooperation for innovation. The Sichuan Provincial Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine has maximized the Leading Group Office's role in coordination. As a result, 24 member departments have integrated demonstration area development into relevant plans and driven for policy and measure implementation, unleashing the dividends of the TCM reform continuously. Strengthen overall planning and act proactively.

The Sichuan Provincial Committee and Sichuan Provincial Government have set demonstration area development as KPIs of city (prefecture) party committees and governments, a move that further motivates them to reform and innovate TCM and nails down accountabilities. Yibin earmarks 50 million yuan every year as city-level TCM development fund. Meishan, Dazhou, Ya'an and other places allocate dedicated fund for TCM comprehensive reform with maximum rewards and subsidies up to 10 million yuan per project. Luzhou and Suining have published their Development Plan for Chinese Medicinal Herb Industry. Luzhou, Mianyang, Guangyuan and Neijiang have actively explored health insurance's contribution to TCM development. New campuses of TCM hospitals in Zigong, Deyang, Guangyuan and Nanchong are under construction in full swing. Regulations on the Protection of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture took effective from February 1 2023.

Favorable winds take you further. With a series of major reforms, projects and policies in place, Sichuan is heading steadily towards a strong TCM province with outstanding competitiveness, innovation and influence. 

TCM services and treatment become more efficient to care for and benefit the people

Previously Ya'an City was the first to pilot mobile hospitals in Baoxing County where TCM services fall within the scope of practice and are accessible to the public at home, making mobile healthcare vehicles available to each township and town in the middle and high mountainous area, central town, characteristic town and area, boosting the radiation of primary TCM healthcare. 

The quality of TCM services in primary healthcare is an important test of demonstration areas and is also directly relevant to the public's sense of gain. 

Sichuan is vigorously promoting a "100,1000 and 10,000" campaign by organizing 100, 1000 and 10000 experts from provinces, cities and counties respectively to strengthen TCM services in primary healthcare where "provincial experts assist counties, city experts assist townships and county experts assist villages", promoting the sharing of quality TCM resources. The public therefore have access to homogeneous TCM services as in large hospitals. In addition, Sichuan has innovated to support 23 health centers specialized in TCM in central towns to build county-level TCM sub-centers, support 29 county-level TCM hospitals to build up a county-level integrated healthcare organization and support 12 county-level TCM hospitals to develop service capabilities in "two specialties and one center", and support the connotation construction of 1500 primary TCM centers with an aim to "cure severe illness in counties and minor illnesses in villages". 

Meanwhile, Sichuan has also been committed to enhancing TCM's capabilities in emergency and critical care and treating refractory diseases.

In the West China Hospital of Sichuan University, the mortality rate of acute pancreatitis treated with integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine has been lowered to around 15% and its surgery rate has been decreased to below 10% with internationally leading overall response. The annul number of visits exceeds 2000 cases, ranking the top nationwide in clinical treatment.

At present, Sichuan is actively promoting the development of 12 provincial TCM inheritance centers. 20 preventive health centers have been established and a total of 20 provincial TCM prevention and treatment centers for severe acute pancreatitis, diabetes and other critical diseases have been built, giving full play to TCM to safeguard people's health. 

Efficiency improvement brings new growth points for economic and social development

To turn TCM resources into economic advantages, many places in Sichuan adapt measures to local conditions based on respective TCM specialty industries, promote major projects and develop high-quality Chinese medicinal herbs industrial clusters. They cultivate major species of Chinese medicinal herbs, accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the Chinese medicinal herbs industry to promote TCM high-quality development.

-The planting area of Chinese herbal medicines in the whole province has reached 8.5 million mu and TCM enterprises above designated size achieved a total profit of 58.1 billion yuan, with 2 enterprises of over 5 billion yuan-Gooddoctor Pharmaceutical Group and New Green Medicine, and 5 enterprises of over 1 billion yuan such as Kanghong Pharmaceutical Company and Chengdu First Pharmaceutical, 4 enterprises of over 500 million yuan such as Baiyu Pharmaceutical and Neautus and 48 enterprises of over 100 million yuan such as Limin Traditional Chinese Medicine Slices Company. The province has built 10 provincial star-level modern agriculture (forestry) parks of Chinese herbal medicines and the annual comprehensive output value of high-quality Sichuan-produced Chinese herbal medicines has exceeded 120 billion yuan.

-Tianfu Traditional Chinese Medicine City in Pengzhou where several major projects such as Livzon Guangda, Lianhuan Yazhong and Tianfu TCM Innovation Port of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine are under construction at full speed and are expected to generate a revenue of 20 billion yuan by 2025. It is planned to be developed into a scale of 100 billion yuan and the place of origin for TCM industry's global rejuvenation by 2035. 

-As a "pharmacy in Qinba", Dazhou has made many efforts in three sectors, namely seeds, processing and comprehensive health to grow the Chinese medicinal herb industry from large to strong with the comprehensive output of the city's "primary, secondary and tertiary industries" of TCM reaching 11.5 billion yuan. At present, China's largest breeding base of Barrenwort and Baibu seedlings has been well established. Last year, the planting area of Chinese medicinal herbs increased by 15,300 mu, reaching 795,000 mu and ranking first in Sichuan. Three large species of authentic medicinal herbs, namely Black Plum, Gastrodia Elata and Barrenwort, have been identified. 37 authentic medicinal herb planting bases have been built. The largest wild imitation cultivation base of Gastrodia Elata has been established in Sichuan, forming a scale effect for the industrial development.

Such examples are abundant in Sichuan: Aoping Town in Pengzhou City, Santai County in Mianyang City, and growing bulk medicinal herbs such as Ligusticum Chuanxiong and Ophiopogon Japonicus as a "golden key" for rural revitalization. More than 30,000 mu of Sichuan Fuzi and Dipsacaceae have turned the Daliang Mountain into a "mountain of gold and silver", helping the Yi people to live a happy life they yearn for. The traditional Chinese and Tibetan medicine industry in Ganzi Prefecture have been upgraded. Indigowoad Root produced by Xiangcheng Zangqinglan Company, Panax Notoginseng and other species have been officially put into production and marketed. Tibetan medicines are sold at home and abroad… "Multiple successes across the board" and explorations on development paths of traditional medicinal herbs with different characteristics have enabled local economic and social development on a large scale. 

"The national demonstration area for TCM comprehensive reform is a major reform task deployed by the Party Central Committee and the State Council. As Sichuan TCM practitioners, we deeply feel that our mission is glorious with huge responsibilities." Tian Xingjun said that taking the opportunity to study and implement the theme education of Xi Jinping Thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for the new era and following the general requirements of "learning ideas, strengthening party spirit, emphasizing practice, and making new contributions", Sichuan will further make breakthroughs on reform and innovation, accelerate the formation of reform achievements, give full play to the unique advantages of TCM, actively integrate into the province's economic and social development, and speed up the construction of the national demonstration area for TCM comprehensive reform to live up to the reputation as the "hometown of Chinese medicine and treasure house of Chinese medicinal herbs".

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