Visitors tour Chinese ships in Hawaii

The Open Ship Tour Day of the Rim of the Pacific exercise (RIMPAC) drew a flood of visitors to the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) fleet at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii on July 5.

Two Chinese ships - missile destroyer Haikou and hospital ship Peace Ark - were among ships from a dozen countries that offered open tours as part of the world's largest naval drills with 22 nations taking part.

Visitors to the Chinese ships included ordinary Americans, military personnel from various nations and journalists.

In the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) clinic on Peace Ark, curious visitors tried to learn something about the mysteries of TCM. Ellsa Chambers, who works in the local hotel industry in Hawaii, volunteered to undergo cupping therapy.

As Zhai Xiaofeng, the TCM doctor on Peace Ark, lit an alcohol cotton ball to heat the air in a glass cup, and then removed the flaming cotton ball and placed the cup on Chambers' neck, many onlookers were dumbfounded.

According to TCM, cupping is a method of creating a vacuum on the patient's skin to dispel stagnation, stagnant blood and lymphatic fluid, thereby improving the flow of qi, the vital energy which the Chinese believe through in the body. For further information of Chinese medicine, please click to learn Constitution with yang deficiency in TCM.

As Zhai explained the technique to visitors, Chambers was clearly enjoying the experience. She said that although she felt a bit nervous at first, she felt great afterwards.

The whole day tour allowed more people to get to know PLAN, which is participating in RIMPAC for the first time since it was launched during the height of Cold War in 1971.

Kelly Kambourelis, from a local law firm in Hawaii, said it was a great opportunity for her to get to visit the Chinese military vessels and she found everything very interesting.

Four PLAN ships, with a total of 1,100 personnel, are participating in the 2014 RIMPAC, making China the second largest nation represented, trailing only the host nation US. Besides Haikou and Peace Ark, the other two PLAN ships are missile frigate Yueyang and supply ship Qiandaohu.

It is also the first time for any hospital ship to participate in RIMPAC. The two hospital ships - Peace Ark and the USS Mercy - will hold medical subject matter expert exchanges as well as simulated disaster relief operations at sea.

On July 3, Peace Ark hosted a military medical symposium attended by some 60 military medical officials from participating nations, including the US, Canada and South Korea.

Sun Tao, head of Peace Ark's hospital, said the multilateral experience sharing has helped all sides learn from each other and increase mutual trust. "It lays a foundation for mutual collaboration in future humanitarian assistance actions," he said.

Jeff Paulson, head of Mercy's hospital, said he believes Peace Ark is capable of carrying out all relevant missions.

On July 2, US Navy Surgeon General and Chief of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Vice-Admiral Matthew Nathan, also went aboard Peace Ark for a tour.

"As a US Pacific Command surgeon, one of my priorities is to develop health engagements with all of our world's nations, and we are working very hard to develop engagements with the People's Republic of China," Rear Admiral Colin Chinn, command surgeon, US Pacific Command, was quoted on the US Navy website on July 4.

"This year RIMPAC is significant; the fact that China is participating, the medical community is having a symposium and the fact that we have Peace Ark and Mercy together, actually meets one of my long term goals," Chinn said.

Peace Ark, commissioned in 2008, has been providing rapid humanitarian response to disasters around the world, including typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines late last year, despite tensions between the two nations over maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea. For further information of Chinese medicine, please click to learn Constitution with qi deficiency in TCM.

"This is very exciting for our sailors, for our staff on the Mercy and for our Navy," said Nathan. "I am hopeful that this is just the first of many opportunities we have to partner up and learn from each other. The sea can bring tremendous damage to a country and its people, but it can also bring amazing ships like the Peace Ark and the Mercy to people to help make a difference."

"One of the highlights of the symposium was the address by our Chinese compatriots on their Peace Ark," said Canadian Army Lt Col Nicholas Withers, combined force maritime component commander surgeon, at the International Military Medical Symposium held July 1-2aboard the USS Peleliu.

CEO Cai Qiang says the company has contracts in the US with Partners HealthCare, the largest network of hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, McLean Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

Liu Yuanli of Peking Union Medical College says there are big differences between medical tourists coming to China and those going overseas.

"Patients in Europe and the US usually choose overseas medical services when the overseas services are much cheaper, and they do this through commercial insurance, while Chinese tourists going aboard are looking for high-end medical services and mostly paying their own bills. They look for treatment for cancer or diseases that are hard to find in China."

But compared with neighboring countries such as South Korea and Thailand, medical tourism in China is still in its infancy.
Part of the reason is the stringent requirements of the Chinese government, says Liu Tingfang, a professor at the Institute for Hospital Management, Tsinghua University.

"Hospitals are required to have less than 10 percent of high-end services so as to ensure the public's medical services," he says.

"Moreover, there are few high-end medical services. We need to allow more private hospitals and foreign hospitals to locate in China so we can attract more international patients."

Some have already opened. Hainan province has designated Sanya Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital as a pilot hospital and has been marketing services to Russia, the Middle East and northern Europe. It treats an average of 3,000 overseas patients a year with each patient spending $20,000, hospital head Chen Xiaoyong says. The hospital has treated 30,000 overseas patients.
Recently, Beijing and Shanghai also started such initiatives to expand the medical tourism market.

Liu of Tsinghua University says China needs to build a medical certification system accepted worldwide. "Only by showing certifications can we gain trust from international patients, and it also facilitates the reimbursement process of commercial insurance companies."
Official figures show China has 14,200 hospitals at county level and above, and 1,500 tertiary-level hospitals at the top level. Liu suggests that the government pick some as pilot hospitals to offer more market-oriented medical services. "Otherwise we will miss the opportunities in this niche market," Liu says

Lack of recognition and certification is a big hurdle for TCM in Europe, experts say. Since TCM arrived in Europe, its treatments have been classified as supplements rather than medicine, and they cannot be sold in pharmacies.

Li says Chinese medical institutions should communicate more with their European counterparts so the medical world will become more familiar with TCM and misunderstandings will be reduced.

"To make breakthroughs in the European market, Chinese medical institutions should focus on a certain area such as the handicapped, or therapy for chronic diseases." For further information of Chinese medicine, please click to learn Constitution with blood deficiency in TCM.
Abstracted from chinadaily.com.cn.