China has exchanged views on Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) diagnosis and treatment protocol for COVID-19, effective TCM prescriptions and clinical experiences with 82 countries and regions including Italy, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Pakistan, and donated TCM products to more than 10 countries. Besides, it also dispatched TCM doctors to 27 countries and regions for epidemic relief, which indicated the sense of responsibility of a major country.

So far, TCM has been introduced to 183 countries and regions around the world, and China has signed TCM cooperation agreements with over 40 foreign governments, regional organizations and international organizations.

China helped establish 30 TCM centers in Belt and Road countries and regions, and the “Belt and Road” Tour of TCM Acupuncture-Moxibustion has been held in 35 countries and regions along the Belt and Road. As of December the last year, the overseas TCM centers and domestic bases had carried out cooperation with nearly 90 countries, launching a total of 388 projects and training over 13,000 overseas professionals. Fifteen Confucius Institutes and Classrooms for TCM are operational around the world, and 240 Confucius Institutes in 78 countries offer TCM and Tai Chi courses.

The number of registered students have reached 35,000, and 185,000 people have participated in relevant activities. Chinese TCM colleges also launched proactive international education cooperation, enrolling over 10,000 TCM students from overseas.

Full-time TCM courses are offered in some countries, and around 1,500 part-time TCM training institutes have been established overseas, training 30,000 TCM personnel each year. As a traditional major country of medicine, China has always been committed to leading and promoting the global development of traditional medicines.

In May 2019, the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision was approved at the 72nd World Health Assembly, which marked the first time that TCM was included in the ICD system. It indicated that TCM has historically entered the classification system of mainstream medicines.

Under the promotion of the Chinese side, the International Organization for Standardization established the Traditional Chinese Medicine Technical Committee (ISO/TC 249), and issued 53 international standards on TCM.

The UNESCO included “Acupuncture and moxibustion as part of Chinese traditional medicine” on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and China’s Tibetan medicinal bathing also entered the list in 2018.

Ancient Chinese medical texts Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon and Compendium of Materia Medica were also included in the Memory of the World Register by the UNESCO in 2011. At present, COVID-19 is still plaguing the world.