Governing Health in Contemporary China

Yanzhong Huang

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781138815667
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136155482
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Public Affairs & Administration
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The lack of significant improvement in people's health status and other mounting health challenges in China raise a puzzling question about the country's internal transition: why did the reform-induced dynamics produce an economic miracle, but fail to reproduce the success Mao had achieved in the health sector? This book examines the political and policy dynamics of health governance in post-Mao China. It explores the political-institutional roots of the public health and health care challenges and the evolution of the leaders' policy response in contemporary China. It argues that reform-induced institutional dynamics, when interacting with Maoist health policy structure in an authoritarian setting, have not only contributed to the rising health challenges in contemporary China, but also shaped the patterns and outcomes of China's health system transition. The study of China's health governance will further our understanding of the evolving political system in China and the complexities of China's rise. As the world economy and international security are increasingly vulnerable to major disease outbreaks in China, it also sheds critical light on China's role in global health governance.

China policy series

Series editor: Zheng Yongnian

China Policy Institute, University of Nottingham, UK

1. China and the New International Order
   Edited by Wang Gungwu and Zheng Yongnian
2. China’s Opening Society
   The non-state sector and governance
   Edited by Zheng Yongnian and Joseph Fewsmith
3. Zhao Ziyang and China’s Political Future
   Edited by Guoguang Wu and Helen Lansdowne
4. Hainan – State, Society, and Business in a Chinese Province
   Kjeld Erik Brodsgaard
5. Non-Governmental Organizations in China
   The rise of dependent autonomy
   Yiyi Lu
6. Power and Sustainability of the Chinese State
   Edited by Keun Lee, Joon-Han Kim and Wing Thye Woo
7. China’s Information and Communications Technology Revolution
   Social changes and state responses
   Edited by Xiaoling Zhang and Yongnian Zheng
8. Socialist China, Capitalist China
   Social tension and political adaptation under economic globalisation
   Edited by Guoguang Wu and Helen Lansdowne
9. Environmental Activism in China
   Lei Xei
10. China’s Rise in the World ICT Industry
    Industrial strategies and the catch-up development model
    Lutao Ning
11. China’s Local Administration
    Traditions and changes in the sub-national hierarchy
    Edited by Jae-Ho Chung and Tao-chiu Lam
12. The Chinese Communist Party as Organizational Emperor
    Culture, reproduction and transformation
    Zheng Yongian
13. China’s Trade Unions – How Autonomous Are They?
    Masaharu Hishida, Kazuko Kojima, Tomoaki Ishii and Jian Qiao
14. Legitimating the Chinese Communist Party since Tiananmen
    A critical analysis of the stability discourse
    Peter Sandby-Thomas
15. China and International Relations
    The Chinese view and the contribution of Wang Gungwu
    Zheng Yongnian
16. The Challenge of Labour in China
    Strikes and the changing labour regime in global factories
    Chris King-chi Chan
17. The Impact of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Massacre
    Edited by Jean-Philippe Béja
18. The Institutional Dynamics of China’s Great Transformation
    Edited by Xiaoming Huang
19. Higher Education in Contemporary China
    Beyond expansion
    Edited by W. John Morgan and Bin Wu
20. China’s Crisis Management
    Edited by Jae Ho Chung
21. China Engages Global Governance
    A new world order in the making?
    Gerald Chan, Pak K. Lee and Lai-Ha Chan
22. Political Culture and Participation in Rural China
    Yang Zhong
23. China’s Soft Power and International Relations
    Hongyi Lai and Yiyi Lu
24. China’s Climate Policy
    CHEN Gang
25. Chinese Society – Change and Transformation
    Edited by Li Peilin
26. China’s Challenges to Human Security
    Foreign relations and global implications
    Edited by Guoguang Wu
27. China’s Internal and International Migration
    Edited by Li Peilin and Laurence Roulleau-Berger
28. The Rise of Think Tanks in China
    Xufeng Zhu
29. Governing Health in Contemporary China
    Yanzhong Huang

“Yanzhong Huang's book reflects a deep knowledge of Western theories as well as of Chinese political processes. On the basis of a decade of research, he traces the changes taking place in China in the politics of health policy as ‘buck-passing’ replaces ‘bandwagoning’.”

Ezra F. Vogel, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard University, USA and author of Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China

“Yanzhong Huang has written an important book. He asks, ‘Why have Chinese public health indicators failed to match China's economic performance in the reform era? Indeed, why have they failed to match the performance under Mao?’ The answer resides in the buck-passing, fragmented, unaccountable system that has developed. Public health improvement requires political change. I recommend this book highly.”

David M. Lampton, Hyman Professor and Director of China Studies, Johns Hopkins SAIS, USA, and author of The Politics of Medicine in China

“This is a meticulously researched book that has made a valuable contribution to our understanding of the crisis in China's healthcare sector. Yanzhong Huang's research is not only theoretically original, but also insightful in its analysis of the underlying causes of the poor delivery of social services in post-Mao China.”

Minxin Pei, Tom and Margot Pritzker '72 Professor of Government, Claremont McKenna College, USA, and author of China's Trapped Transition:

The Limits of Developmental Autocracy

“Ever since the SARS epidemic of 2003 lifted the curtain to reveal the extent of horrors and ineptitude in China's system, outsiders have puzzled over why health has remained an Achilles Heel of the transforming state. Yanzhong Huang is arguably the only expert able to solve this paradox, offering bold and startling insights. This is a must-read for anybody interested in global health, pandemic control, or the future of the Chinese state.”

Laurie Garrett, Council on Foreign Relations, USA, and author of Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health

Governing Health in Contemporary China

Yanzhong Huang

First published 2013

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2013 Yanzhong Huang

The right of Yanzhong Huang...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Frontmatter 1
• Frontmatter 2
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Health governance under Mao, 1949–76
• 3 Providing care for all: healthcare reforms in post-Mao China
• 4 Harnessing the fourth horseman: capacity building in disease control and prevention
• 5 Building the ship at sea: food and drug safety regulation
• 6 Conclusions and implications
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index