SOLIDARITY IMPROVING GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTIONS AND INSTRUMENTS 8.4
From partnerships in Africa to reinforcing support for the WHO, China is positioning itself as a key player in global health. Amid geopolitical tensions and economic slowdowns, multilateralism remains essential to ensure lasting progress in building robust global health regimes China’s approach to global health governance and its adherence to multilateralism
D
uring this year’s World Health Assembly in Geneva, China pledged an additional $500 million to the World Health Organization over the next
and digital health care. China has been helping upgrade public health capacity through long-term talent cooperation programmes with more than 20 BRI countries since 2013. These efforts have significantly helped them respond to public health threats. The second prong is multilateralism in global health governance, which China staunchly supports and practices. It has repeatedly voiced its support for the WHO. Indeed, the Global Security Initiative, released in 2023, stipulates CHAMPIONING MULTILATERALISM IN GLOBAL HEALTH that China will “support the World Health Organization in playing a leading role in global governance in public health, and effectively coordinate and mobilize global resources to jointly respond to COVID-19 and other major global infectious diseases”. As the dominant member of the BRICS, China has reiterated its support for the WHO’s central coordinating role in implementing multilateral efforts to protect public health from infectious diseases and epidemics. China has integrated global health governance into various multilateral organisations. China has motivated the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, of which it is a founding member, and hosted its health ministers’ meeting in April 2025 under the theme
Jin Jiyong, distinguished professor (Shanghai
Oriental scholar), School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Shanghai International Studies University
five years. This speaks volumes about its political commitment to global health governance. While politically committed to improving the well-being of its citizens, China increasingly positions itself as an important player in global health governance with its vision of building a global community of health for all. China takes a two-pronged approach to global health governance. The first prong is bilateralism. In 1963, China sent medical teams to Algeria to help strengthen its broken medical system. Since then, China has normalised its collaboration with African countries by dispatching doctors and training local doctors. That cooperation has significantly promoted health governance in Africa. In the wake of the Ebola crisis in West Africa, China helped the African Union build the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to bolster the capacity of public health institutions in effectively coordinating disease prevention, surveillance and control on the continent. Africa CDC’s headquarters symbolises the China-Africa bilateral partnership in global health. That bilateral health cooperation
was further highlighted in the Beijing Action Plan (2025–2027), unveiled at the 2024 Forum on China-African Cooperation. China and Africa agreed to host the Health Silk Road Cooperation Conference and the China-Africa Ministerial Forum on Health Cooperation, institutionalise policy dialogue and technical exchanges on public health, establish the China-Africa Knowledge Exchange Center for Health Development Cooperation, and hold a dialogue between Chinese and African think tanks on health cooperation. Health care is clearly a pillar in the strategic partnership between China and Africa. The Health Silk Road, an integral part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, is another eminent embodiment of China’s bilateral efforts to promote global health governance. China has partnered with BRI countries in infectious disease prevention and control, public health emergency response, maternal and child health, chronic disease prevention and control,
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Health: A Political Choice – The Future of Health in a Fractured World
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