China hopes to improve services and introduce competition to its tightly regulated health care sector by launching a pilot project to set up foreign-funded hospitals in seven mainland cities or provinces, South China Morning Post reported, citing a Tuesday statement by the Ministry of Commerce. The project is part of the national strategy to create more jobs, upgrade the economy, and ease bottlenecks in medical resources, which are causing rising conflict between doctors and patients. Overseas investors will be allowed to establish foreign-funded hospitals from scratch or through mergers and acquisitions in the cities of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, and the provinces of Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan.