China's state news agency on the foreign-patient wave: what Xinhua's report signals
A signal, not just a story
In January 2026, Xinhua — the official news agency of the Chinese government — ran a flagship in-depth feature on why foreigners are 'flocking' to China for medical care. Xinhua speaks with the government's voice, and the posture of this report is unmistakable: positive, encouraging, a welcome extended to patient friends from every part of the world. Its own framing calls international medical services a 'win for both sides.' The scale it documents: 850 medical institutions across 57 Chinese cities now provide international medical services, receiving patients from Russia, Singapore, the United States, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa and beyond.
Why they come, in Xinhua's telling
The report lists the drivers plainly: long waits and low efficiency in patients' home systems; Chinese teams' deep clinical experience and leading technique in oncology, cardiovascular and neurological disease; advanced treatments priced below developed-country levels; and traditional Chinese medicine, whose acupuncture, moxibustion and tuina now draw their own international following — the report profiles a 68-year-old Canadian who returns to China every year after ear-acupuncture treatment eased his condition.
The policy scaffolding behind it
Xinhua also inventories the policy support being built: nine provinces and cities are piloting wholly foreign-owned hospitals; Beijing has released forty traditional-medicine international medical-tourism service packages; international departments keep expanding. One detail matters especially for readers of this site: premium services at public hospitals are capped at 10% of total capacity — the regular departments, with their government-listed prices that foreigners share, remain the protected core of the system.
Источник: Xinhua Insight: foreigners coming to China for medical care (2026-01)