2024 World Conference on Traditional Medicine opens in Beijing

The 2024 World Conference on Traditional Medicine opened in Beijing on Tuesday, with President Xi Jinping sending a congratulatory letter reaffirming China's commitment to enhancing traditional medicine to better benefit people around the world.

Yin Li, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Beijing's Party chief, read out Xi's letter at the opening ceremony of the conference.

In his letter, Xi said efforts are needed from all sides to strengthen medical and health cooperation, jointly address global health challenges and promote the building of a global community of health for all.

China is willing to work with the international community to foster mutual learning in traditional medicines, integrate them more deeply into the global health system, and promote the innovative transformation and development of traditional medicine culture, he said.

On traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Xi said China has always attached equal importance to modern medicine and TCM and has blazed a characteristic development path of traditional medicine.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong said that China is ready to work with the rest of the world to integrate traditional medicines into the global health system.

Noting the unique role and great potential of traditional medicines in disease treatment and health improvement, Liu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, emphasized their importance as a key component of medical sciences worldwide.

Traditional Chinese Medicine was developed by the Chinese people over a period of thousands of years for use in daily life and to fight against diseases. It is characterized by its holistic approach and focuses on harmony, individuality, preventative treatment and simplicity.

Liu said that, in recent decades, China has worked to ensure modern and traditional medicines complement each other and advance together, adding that, in this process, the country has successfully blazed a path for the development of traditional medicines.

Liu put forward three proposals for integrating traditional medicines deeper into global health system. First, he called for self-reliance and self-confidence, and expanding the space for traditional medicines to grow and be applied more broadly. Second, he stressed the integration of modern and traditional medicines, while adhering to the principles of integrity and innovation. Third, he called for greater exchanges and cooperation among different forms of traditional medicine.

The 2024 World Conference on Traditional Medicine was jointly held by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese sponsors, including the National Health Commission.

The opening ceremony was attended by health officials of governments and international organizations, experts and scholars, and deputies from medical institutions. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gave a speech via video.

2024 World Conference on Traditional Medicine opens in Beijing

A China Pavilion officially opened on Monday at the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, highlighting China's decades-long efforts and achievements in combating desertification.

Covering more than 600 square meters, the China Pavilion is the second-largest national pavilion at the event. Its exhibition, themed "Cross-Century Green Great Wall, China's Restoration in Action," showcases the nation's battle against desertification, particularly through the Three-North Shelter Forest Program, a major national initiative aimed at reversing land desertification in its north, northwest and northeast regions by surrounding desert lands with trees and vegetation.

Addressing the opening ceremony, UNCCD Deputy Executive Secretary Andrea Meza Murillo praised China's significant contributions to curbing its desertification, including controlling the expansion of the Taklimakan Desert in west China, the world's second-largest shifting sand desert.

She emphasized that effective policies, community and local government involvement, as well as innovation and technology, are key components of China's success.

"The example of what the government of China is doing in restoring land, in combating desertification, means a lot to humanity. It is inspiring and remarkable to see that China has already achieved land degradation neutrality ahead of time by restoring 50 percent of curable degraded sandy land. This is amazing. It's clear that we need good leadership, good policies, engagement of the society, engagement of national governments. It's really good to see this engagement, and of course, innovation is technology, it's traditional knowledge, and this is what we are seeing in the China experience," said Murillo.

COP16, held from Dec. 2 to 13 under the theme "Our Land. Our Future," is the largest UN land-focused conference to date and the first UNCCD COP in the Middle East and North Africa.

China Pavilion opens at UN conference on desertification held in Riyadh