Top-level meeting signals healthcare shake-up

China’s medical community is expecting a shake-up of healthcare in the wake of a high-level national health conference over the weekend, according to the South China Morning Post. The conference on Friday and Saturday was attended not only by President Xi Jinping and his colleagues from the powerful Communist Party Politburo, but also by heads of the top legislature, court and procuratorate. The meeting comes two decades after former president Jiang Zemin and the Politburo attended the first national health conference in Beijing. That gathering put health care firmly on the agenda, defining it as key to economic development and social stability. The revival of the conference over the weekend after 20 years is a sign that reform of the sector is under way.