The breathtaking landscapes of Altay in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, as depicted in the popular mini TV series "To the Wonder," have mesmerized audiences, drawing visitors to the city and significantly boosting tourism in Xinjiang.
Filmed in this pristine area, the drama showcased the stunning natural beauty and unique cultural charm of Altay, which sparked widespread online discussions about touring the city.
Since the release of the series on May 5, the internet searches about Altay more than doubled, with searches for Altay homestays increasing by 200 percent over the previous week. The same cabins which featured in the drama have become too popular to book. Additionally, bookings for group tours across Xinjiang have increased by 247 percent compared to the previous week, according to Beijing Youth Daily on Wednesday.
According to data from domestic travel platform Fliggy, since the screening of To The Wonder, searches about Altay tourism on the platform has surged by over 500 percent. Flight bookings to Altay have increased by over 50 percent compared to the previous week, while car rental bookings have nearly doubled.
Fei Fei, a publicity official with the Altay bureau of culture, sports, radio, television and tourism, told the Global Times that the bureau has been committed to carrying out various promotional and publicity campaigns aimed at attracting more tourists to experience the natural beauty and rich cultural heritage of Altay.
"The number of tourists to Altay has grown significantly since the airing of the TV series. Tourists from the Chinese mainland, in particular, showed great interest in the Altay scenery and folk culture," said Fei.
"We will continue to combine culture and tourism to further enhance the popularity and reputation of Altay. Various promotional activities will be carried out to attract more potential visitors," Fei noted.
Located in the northern part of Xinjiang, Altay is also one of the best destinations for tourists and photography enthusiasts to view the natural wonder of the aurora borealis.
The peak tourist season in the Altay region typically lasts from July to August. However, spurred by the impact of the TV drama, this year's peak season in the area is expected to arrive earlier. Additionally, the most popular months for visiting Altay's Kanas scenic area, which usually starts at the end of August and extends into September, is predicted to commence as early as June this year.
According to the bureau, during the May Day holidays, the city received a total of 106,900 tourists, marking a year-on-year increase of 45.04 percent. The city generated 86.16 million yuan ($11.9 million) in tourism revenue, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 43.19 percent.
Lying between the southern foot of the Altai Mountains and the northern edge of the Junggar Basin, Altay boasts abundant natural tourism resources, including grasslands, snow-capped mountains, deserts, rivers, gorges, wetlands, and more. The area has always been recognized as a paradise for photographers, skiers, birdwatchers, and independent travelers.
Douyin, one of the most popular short-video apps in China, released new regulations restricting users from disseminating political and social affairs, financial, legal, or medical content for commercial purposes.
Accounts with a substantial fan base and significant influence will no longer be permitted to own authorization with commercially promoted accounts, granting them the ability to create content covering political, social, legal and medical content.
In response, Douyin told media that to protect the rights of creators and optimize the creator experience, Douyin has adjusted the account authorization function for commercial promotion. This includes no longer supporting government media organizations or accounts that primarily focus on social, political, economic, legal, or medical content, or accounts with a large number of followers and significant influence, to establish authorization relationships with commercial promotion accounts that include content publishing capabilities.
A representative from Douyin’s customer service department told the Global Times that under the new rule, the app will no longer support or grant authorization for individual users (whose who don’t affiliate with any organization) to publish content addressing political, social affairs, legal and medical issues.
The customer service stated that the move aims to safeguard creators' rights and optimize their overall experience on the platform. The revised regulations primarily target collaborations with huge amounts of commercial promotion accounts and local push-outs.
Wang Sixin, a professor of law from the Communication University of China, told the Global Times that as a shepherd in China’s social media arena, Douyin’s move may exert significant impact on self-media accounts. Currently, there is a mixed bag of self-media creators, and the government's regulation of online platforms is closely linked to their social communication effects. "The government has always encouraged mainstream media to regulate professional information related to the industry. Unrestricted publishing of contents on social media will not only cause trouble for regulation, they also bore severe political risks,” Wang said.
Last month, the Cyberspace Administration of China announced this special campaign. The campaign is designated to crack down on influencers' boundless behavior of rubbing and creating heated spots, which mix virtuality with reality. It will rigorously rectify influencers who disregard public interest, violate morals in order to gain public attention.
It will target self-directed fabricating stories, such as unscrupulous manipulation of trending social news, international and domestic news, and indiscriminate distribution of vulgar news to fool netizens and sabotage the internet environment.
Chinese experts said on Monday that reported cooperation between South Korea and the US to address so-called "excess capacity" in China's photovoltaic (PV) industry is part of the strategic narrative for Western countries to hype "overcapacity" in China's new-energy vehicles, lithium battery and PV sector, which is aimed at curbing China's technological development and industrial upgrading.
Observers said that the so-called spillover effect of China's "excessive production" is an excuse fabricated by some US politicians out of political motives, amid the US crackdown on Chinese PV companies.
The response came after a South Korean report, which said that senior diplomats from South Korea and the US are cooperating to address the issue of "excess capacity" in China's PV industry, in order to protect industries of both countries from the negative impact brought by overproduction of Chinese solar energy products.
The rapid growth of China's PV-related exports has made many countries more and more anxious. Officials from South Korea and the US on April 30 discussed the need for a joint response to potential ramifications from the so-called "overcapacity" in China's solar industry during talks on energy security in Houston, Texas, South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Kim Hee-sang was quoted as saying this in a report from the Yonhap News Agency.
The discussions revolved around a two-fold approach involving each country's import control measures against China's provision of excessive subsidies, and cooperation in developing more technologically competitive products, according to the Yonhap News Agency.
The move shows that the US and South Korea are hyping "overcapacity" rhetoric targeting China's solar industry in a bid to replace China's industry with their own producers, Han Bing, an expert at the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.
Han said that the US and South Korea believe that they will create difficulties for China's PV firms to expand abroad by imposing trade barriers.
Experts called for the South Korean side to not follow the US in adopting strict economic and trade restrictions against China, saying that such an approach will only backfire on the country itself, with local businesses and ordinary people paying the price.
It's undeniable that China's capacity and technological breakthroughs in the clean energy sector have become powerful engines driving the global energy transition, experts said.
According to a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency, average kilowatt-hour cost of global wind power and photovoltaic power generation have decreased by more than 60 percent and 80 percent respectively in the past decade, a large part of which is attributed to China's innovation, manufacturing and engineering.
China's PV production capacity represents nearly 90 percent of the world's total, industry data show.
Experts praised the efforts made by Chinese companies in increasing research and development efforts to develop new PV cell techniques that could improve efficiency and reduce costs.
China is the world's renewables powerhouse. The country accounts for almost 60 percent of the new renewable capacity expected to become operational globally by 2028. China's role is critical in reaching the global goal of tripling renewables because the country is expected to install more than half of the new capacity required globally by 2030, according to a report by the International Energy Agency.
Chinese PV products have strong competitiveness, thanks to the accumulation of technology and production capacity. Exports have contributed to cost declines and helped solar PV to become the most affordable electricity generation technology, Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Monday.
Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol said the country plans to cut shipping through Vietnamese ports by 70 percent as a result of the $1.7 billion Techo Funan Canal project connecting the Mekong River basin to the Cambodian coast, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
While the discussion surrounding whether the China-funded canal will reduce Cambodia's dependence on Vietnamese ports for shipping has attracted attention, the real significance of the project lies not only in its demonstration of the strong collaboration between China and Cambodia, but also its reflection of the broader trend of regional economic integration.
The project is of great significance to Cambodia's economic development, as it will establish a new trade route that enhances economic and trade collaboration with China. By reducing transportation times, the canal will significantly decrease logistics costs and facilitate intra-regional trade, benefiting Cambodia's foreign trade, particularly in the China-Cambodia trade relationship.
More direct access to the Chinese market will not only boost Cambodia's trade efficiency but also attract increased Chinese investment, bringing benefits for the local population.
The canal may understandably raise certain concerns in Vietnam. But it should be noted that the Techo Funan Canal project is aimed primarily at improving Cambodia's logistics efficiency. Its indirect benefits and enhanced regional cooperation could still open up new opportunities for Vietnam. Of course, the realization of these opportunities will necessitate close cooperation and coordination between Vietnam and Cambodia, as well as among the countries along the Mekong River.
Meanwhile, it is important to recognize that the Techo Funan Canal project should not be viewed solely as a bilateral issue between Cambodia and Vietnam. Taking a broader perspective, the project is just part of the development and enhancement of regional infrastructure connectivity linking China and Southeast Asia. It is also an inevitable development as China and the ASEAN Free Trade Area have reached a certain level of development, because the whole region needs better connectivity.
The success of the China-Laos Railway may be the reason that Southeast Asian nations like Vietnam are building or planning to build high-speed railways to promote regional economic integration and connectivity.
For instance, in December 2023, Vietnam and China signed dozens of cooperation agreements on building several high-speed railways linking to China, according to media reports. Existing road and air connections between China and Vietnam are also being enhanced.
Thailand is also an active regional player. The China-Thailand railway, which is an important part of the trans-Asian railway network, will be Thailand's first standard-gauge high-speed railway. The line will see trains running from Bangkok to the border town of Nong Khai, where a bridge is expected to connect it with the China-Laos Railway, making it possible to travel by train from Bangkok through Laos and then to Kunming in Southwest China's Yunnan Province.
Whether it is a rail network under construction or planning in countries like Vietnam and Thailand, or a planned canal project in Cambodia, these initiatives can become integral components of a future interconnected regional transportation network. Such infrastructure efforts may point to the future of regional economic cooperation as being highly connected, mutually beneficial and win-win for all involved.
As these projects will facilitate the flow of goods, capital, technology and people, Southeast Asian countries stand to gain significant advantages in terms of promoting regional economic integration, enhancing accessibility for their citizens and boosting the efficiency of goods movement.
Of course, challenges may arise with any large-scale infrastructure endeavor. But by working together, it is believed that these challenges can be overcome through close cooperation and consultation among governments, so as to realize the common development and prosperity of the region.
China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index at one point surged 0.2 percent to 3,163.14 points in Friday's morning trading session, a record high this year. It also represents an over 20-percent jump from the low point of 2,635.09 on February 5, which observers said means that the stocks in the Shanghai bourse are "entering a technical bull market."
In early May, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index also showed signs of marching into a technical bull market. Analysts said the rally of Chinese stocks underscored a continued warming of investors' sentiment as well as the return of global capital into a market which they deem very promising but has been low valued. The stepped-up recovery of the world's second-largest economy is also giving a leg-up to the capital market rebound, they noted.
The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 3,154.55 on Friday, standing above the 3,100-mark for six consecutive trading days. The sustained surge was also partly thanks to the inflow of northbound funds, which has shown substantial net inflow in recent days.
On April 26, the inflow of northbound funds hit 22.449 billion yuan ($3.11 billion) marking a new high since the launch of the Stock Connect Program. The inflow of northbound funds also reached 10 billion yuan on April 29 and May 6, reflecting an across-the-board interest in investing in Chinese equities.
Data from financial website eastmoney.com shows that northbound funds recorded a net inflow of 87.6 billion yuan to date this year, or more than twice last year's reading.
"First, there's a palpable improvement in investors' mood from January to May, amid more measures to stabilize the market. Second, global capital is now returning to the Chinese market after withdrawing from the US, Europe and Japanese markets," Yang Delong, chief economist at Shenzhen-based First Seafront Fund, told the Global Times on Friday.
The world's financial institutions have reportedly been expanding their footprint in China. An HSBC Holdings Plc report said that more than 90 percent of emerging market funds are adding back their positions in the currently underweight A shares. A Bloomberg report quoted analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc as saying that there's "a fear of missing out" on the opportunities in Chinese equities building up among traders.
Analysts noted that the stronger US dollar, coupled with the low valuation of Chinese equities, is one of the reasons behind the inflow of foreign capital. Yang also took note of China's positive economic fundamentals and the government's supportive measures, which have all helped bolster market confidence.
In a fresh move to allay market concerns over the country's property downturn, two Chinese mega-cities, Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province and Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, said on Thursday they would lift all home purchase restrictions to shore up the local real estate market and boost market confidence. This follows similar moves recently in other big cities like Chengdu, Shenzhen and Beijing.
"The slow recovery of the real estate sector has weighed on the outlook of the Chinese economy, so those measures will further strengthen investors' expectations of the robust economic recovery streak," Yang said.
He stressed that the measures addressing the property sector are being carried out in parallel with policies for the capital market, and could therefore constitute a "two-pronged approach" to shore up the A-share market.
Since the beginning of this year, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the country's top securities regulator, has been taking a series of sweeping measures to boost market confidence, stabilize expectations and ensure the long-term healthy and sound development of the capital market.
In April, CSRC published rules to regulate mutual fund trading fees, set to take effect on July 1, 2024. The rules aim to enhance the management of securities trading fees, standardize the allocation of trading commissions by fund managers and safeguard the legal rights of fund shareholders, the CSRC said.
CSRC published on Friday a revised rule intensifying oversight on listed companies, calling for a more stringent risk control mechanism and more transparent information disclosure. Listed companies should better focus on main businesses to ensure investor rights protection and high-quality development.
China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on Saturday issued an interim regulation against unfair competition in the cyberspace, which provides a legal basis to protect the rights of business operators and vast Chinese consumers.
The move showed that the regulation and development of the internet and e-commerce industries are being ramped up, following a big jump in the number of market players online, analysts noted.
The regulation was issued to prevent and stop unfair competition in the internet industry, maintain market order, encourage innovation, protect the legitimate rights and interests of market operators and consumers, and promote the sound and persistent development of the digital economy, the market regulator noted.
The new regulation came amid China's ramped-up efforts to form a unified national market and continuously improving the business environment, the regulator said.
On Saturday, an executive meeting of the State Council reviewed and adopted a draft regulation to promote fair market competition in China.
Liu Dingding, an internet industry analyst, told the Global Times on Sunday that China's law-based internet governance system has been basically formed now, which will benefit online business operation and provide a positive consumption environment for the economy's recovery.
The new regulation has five chapters and 43 detailed stipulations, covering the definition of unfair competition in the internet sphere, such as fake information and false advertising, and clarifying regulatory enforcement and legal liabilities. It will take effect on September 1.
New types of unfair competition by technical means such as illegal data collection and discriminatory treatment will be also regulated. The new regulation provides a basis to address potential new unfair competition issues in the future, the market regulator said.
The new regulation also urges internet platform-based giant companies to assume more responsibility in regulating unfair competition and take concrete steps for compliance. Internet operators that violate this regulation will be severely penalized, according to the SAMR.
Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday that the regulation announced by the SAMR will help improve the country's digital business governance by cracking down on all illicit behaviors and protecting intellectual property in the internet sphere, and the regulator will play an important role in securing the legal rights of both companies and consumers.
Xiang Piao Piao's stock price soared on Monday and hit the daily up limit after netizens found one of its products sold in a store in Japan have cup sleeve satirizing Japan's handling of nuclear-contaminated wastewater.
The Chinese milk tea brand has reportedly seen a 400 percent surge on its live streaming sales in China as millions of netizens bought the products from Saturday to Sunday.
A Chinese netizen discovered that MECO fruit tea, a drink under the brand of Xiang Piao Piao, sells products in a store in Japan with slogans on their cup sleeves showing "the ocean is not Japan's sewer" and "0.1 percent of the land pollutes 70 percent of the ocean." The picture was then exposed on Chinese media social platform.
Tens of thousands of simultaneous viewers visited Xiang Piao Piao's live stream over the weekend after the matter went heated, in which three of the six items were sold out during the live. The daily sales of its store have skyrocketed from 2,500 yuan ($346) to 1 million yuan, according to media reports.
The cup sleeves have also been out of stock as the demand is increasing, and it will be replenished at a later date, according to the anchor of the event.
The official Weibo account of Xiang Piao Piao also released a statement on Saturday saying that "our staff are awesome" after its action triggered heated discussion on Chinese social media platforms. According to media report, the president of Xiang Piao Piao said during the live stream on Sunday that he would award 100,000 yuan to the related employees and donate all the income from the live stream from 8 pm to 12 am that night to the Environmental Protection Foundation.
The hotline staff from Xiang Piao Piao said that it was a personal behavior of the employees, not an initiative of the company, according to the 21st Century Business Herald. The Kyowa store in Okubo of Japan also told the media that the store has not sold drinks with such cup sleeves.
According to previous reports, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) started to dump the fifth batch of Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean on April 19. In Japan's fiscal 2024, which ends in March 2025, TEPCO plans to release a total of 54,600 metric tons across seven rounds, the Japan Times reported.
As of 2 pm on Thursday, the death toll has risen to 48 after part of an expressway collapsed in south China's Guangdong Province on early Wednesday morning, according to a press conference held in Meizhou City. DNA of another three people are yet to be identified.
Thirty injured people are receiving hospital treatment, and none of them are in life-threatening condition, according to authorities of Meizhou City.
The collapse happened around 2:10 a.m. on the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway in Meizhou. The collapsed section measures 17.9 meters long and covers an area of 184.3 square meters, officials said.
Aerial photos show one side of the expressway caved in, causing vehicles to roll down a slope.
China's May Day holidays, spanning five days from Wednesday to Sunday, are expected to witness a historic surge in travel activity. This expectation arises from the sell-out of ticket bookings across numerous tourist attractions and a surging volume of passenger trips, among other positive data points.
The ongoing boom in the tourism industry during the major holidays reflects a significant upgrade and recovery of domestic consumption, experts said. They predict that this year's May Day holidays may see the tourism industry recover to 2019 levels before the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to China Railway Group, the national railway system is expected to transport 144 million passengers, averaging 18 million passengers per day. Rail transportation services for the May Day holidays officially commenced on Monday and will continue until May 6, spanning eight days in total.
Wednesday, or May 1, is expected to see the highest number of trips, with an estimated 21 million passengers set to travel in a single day.
During a regular press conference held by the Ministry of Transport (MOT) on Monday, Guo Sheng, deputy director of the Highway Bureau of the MOT, said that preliminary forecasts indicate a significant increase in travel volume during the upcoming May Day holidays, with a high proportion of people choosing to travel by cars.
The policy of exempting tolls for small passenger vehicles on highways will continue to be implemented over the five-day holidays.
Moreover, the daily inter-regional passenger flow during the holiday period is expected to exceed 270 million passenger trips, surpassing levels seen during the same period in 2023 and 2019. The proportion of self-driving trips is expected to exceed 80 percent, Guo said.
On Monday, the rail network covering the Yangtze River Delta region, one of the most developed regions in China, facilitated more than 2.645 million passengers, an increase of nearly eight percent year-on-year. The railway company expects to see 3.18 million passenger trips on Tuesday, according to media reports.
Data from multiple online travel platforms indicate that the popularity of the holiday travel has continued from last year, potentially making this year's May Day holidays the busiest since the COVID-19 pandemic, experts predicted.
According to Tuniu, an online travel platform, group travel bookings indicate that domestic long-distance travel remains preferred by a larger number of tourists, constituting 46 percent of total trips. Fliggy, another domestic travel platform, revealed a surge in outbound travel bookings, with related service bookings experiencing robust growth of nearly 100 percent, building on last year's rapid rebound.
Tickets for many domestic major tourist attractions have already been sold out few days ahead of the holidays.
Taishan scenic area in East China's Shandong Province issued a reminder to tourists through its WeChat public account that as of Sunday, all night tickets for Taishan scenic area three days before the May Day holidays had been sold out and reservations had been suspended.
On Tuesday, the Panda valley scenic area of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding posted on its WeChat public account that tickets for the scenic area were sold out for Wednesday morning, all day on Thursday and Friday, as well as Saturday morning.
Some scenic spots have implemented measures such as controlling visitor flow and extending visiting hours to ensure a safe and enhanced experience for travelers.
For example, Huashan Scenic Spot issued a notice that during the holidays, the maximum daily number of visitors to Huashan Scenic Spot is limited to 30,000, of which group reservations cannot exceed 8,000 per day. Ticket sales will be suspended when the upper limit is reached.
China's tourism economy has maintained a rapid recovery since the beginning of this year.
On Tuesday, China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism released a statement, announcing that based on the results of a domestic tourism sampling survey, in the first quarter of 2024, the number of domestic tourist trips reached 1.419 billion, an increase of 203 million compared to the same period last year, representing a year-on-year growth of 16.7 percent. Meanwhile, domestic tourists spent a total of 1.52 trillion yuan on travel, an increase of 0.22 trillion yuan compared to the previous year, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 17.0 percent.
This year's tourism sector during the May Day holidays is still at the point where pent-up demand is on the verge of recovery after three years of the pandemic, Wu Fenglin, director of the Planning and Leisure Research Institute, China Tourism Academy, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Since last year, the surge in demand for travel has been accompanied by an upgrade in new travel products, which has jointly contributed to creating a hot tourism market, Wu said.
"So far, the data reported ahead of the May Day holidays make me confident in the recovery of the domestic tourism market," Wu said, noting that three years following the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent industry recovery, there is a possibility that the overall performance of the tourism industry during this year's May Day holidays may mirror that of 2019, the biggest year on record.
In recent months, a number of officials in China's medical fields have been investigated or disciplined, with many of them having previously or currently held important positions.
Experts said on Sunday that the recent anti-corruption moves indicate that anti-corruption efforts are deepening and that pressure on anti-corruption efforts is still being exerted in the medical field.
According to the Guangdong Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision on Friday, Duan Yufei, former Party secretary and director of the Guangdong Provincial Health Commission is currently undergoing disciplinary review and investigation for suspicion of serious violations of discipline and law.
Observers suggested that this may indicate that the anti-corruption efforts in the medical field are increasingly targeting the entire chain, not only focusing on healthcare institution staff, but also on "the key few" closer to the upstream of the industry, including medical enterprises, regulatory departments, and medical universities.
According to incomplete statistics, since March, at least 33 "key few" figures have been investigated or disciplined, including several directors of top-tier hospitals, university management, and top officials in local medical and health systems.
Over the past week, Liu Zilin, former Party secretary and director of the Anhui Provincial Food and Drug Administration, Zhang Yongyu, Party secretary and executive vice president of the Fujian Family Planning Association, and Hu Liu, Party secretary of the People's Hospital of Xinyu, are undergoing disciplinary review and supervision investigation.
Yang Xiaoming, the former chief engineer and chief scientist at China National Biotec Group under Chinese state-owned Sinopharm, has been dismissed from his position as a National People's Congress delegate due to suspected serious violations of discipline and law.
According to Lianhe Zaobao, Yang has been linked to corruption in pharmaceuticals and issues related to vaccine research and development.
Recently, after the president of a medical university in Jiangxi Province was investigated, a hospital where he had served as dean immediately held a meeting to ask staff to voluntarily disclose any financial transactions which involved the former fallen president, according to media reports.
In recent months, Shanghai, Chongqing, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and other regions have introduced detailed implementation rules for the "Nine Codes of Conduct for Medical Institution Staff's Honest and Professional Conduct," which were jointly issued by the National Health Commission and two other ministries in 2021.
These regional rules have expanded and refined the national guidelines, showing certain local differences. Several informed sources revealed that the parts of these rules that have been particularly detailed often indicate more serious issues in the current anti-corruption campaign in the medical field.
The "bribery crime" refers to the crime committed by state personnel who use their official positions to solicit or illegally accept property from others in order to seek benefits for others.
According to the size of a bribe, sentences for bribery crimes are generally divided into three categories - the first category is less than three years, the second category is three to 10 years, and the third category is over 10 years.
Although the current medical anti-corruption campaign seems to have a strong momentum, the judgments of the parties involved did not deviate too much from the expectations of Zhou Hao, a lawyer based in Beijing specialized in criminal defense. "They are basically within the legal framework, and the penalties did not show an unusually severe trend."
The anti-corruption efforts in the medical field are not just about hospitals or doctors, Zhuang Deshui, a deputy director of the Research Center for Government Integrity-Building at Peking University, told the Global Times on Sunday.
"In the past, it was commonly understood that anti-corruption in the medical field only referred to corruption by doctors. Now, this understanding has been expanded, and corruption in the medical field involves pharmaceutical companies, medical management departments, approval departments, and so on," Zhuang noted.
Fees for events or lectures have always been a highly scrutinized area in the anti-corruption efforts in the medical field. On April 7, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission issued the "Implementation Rules of the Nine Guidelines for the Ethical Conduct of Medical Institution Staff in Shanghai." Among them, regulations regarding lecture fees were stipulated - it is strictly prohibited to accept benefits through fabricated academic lecture reasons or fees that clearly exceed the lecture fee standards recommended by the industry association.
"Four or five years ago, fabricating lectures was quite common," Health Insight, a healthcare think tank quoted a pharmaceutical representative. Starting two or three years ago, some multinational pharmaceutical companies began to strictly control lecture fee expenditures.
Now, companies paying lecture fees require e-invoices, video recordings for online meetings, photos for offline meetings, and sharing time must exceed 20 minutes. After the meeting, a third-party team will also conduct follow-ups.
After the discussion on lecture fees in the summer of 2023, China issued corresponding regulations. The document requires that medical personnel must obtain hospital approvals before issuing academic lectures, they must not directly accept lecture fees from pharmaceutical companies, and the organizers and invitees of academic conferences must be state organs, institutions, medical and health institutions, research institutes, universities, and social organizations. This may mean that in the future, medical personnel will have to go through academic societies and associations to give academic lectures.
Eradicating corruption in the medical field cannot be achieved overnight, and it has gradually become an industry consensus, because it needs to reshape the understanding of all practitioners in the industry chain on the distribution of benefits. The key to medical anti-corruption efforts is not only to reverse false perceptions, but also to accurately identify the corrupt elements in the medical field, experts said.
This is a positive trend, forming a comprehensive anti-corruption system that covers the entire chain, Zhuang said. "Only in this way can we address the root causes of this corrupt issue," he said.
