Improving public health

The Ministry of Health has set itself an ambitious goal of raising the country's most significant indicators of public health to the point that they are on par with those of intermediately developed countries by 2020.

As is the case with many of the authorities' other goals, the chief difficulty in this one will come in finding the best means of reaching it.

Among the particular obstacles are the tremendous imbalances that exist among various regions and groups in China, which become evident from an inspection of Ministry of Health data.