BEIJING: China aims to effectively curb the rising incidence of major chronic diseases and raise the average life expectancy to 80 years by 2030, up from 79.25 years in 2025, according to a national health plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30). The plan, recently released by the State Council, China’s Cabinet, outlines the country’s priorities for improving healthcare services and enhancing people’s overall wellbeing over the next five years.
The targets build on steady improvements in the nation’s health indicators. China’s average life expectancy rose by 3.85 years over the past 13 years, reaching 79.25 years last year and ranking third among the 16 countries with populations exceeding 100 million, according to a report delivered on Tuesday by Lei Haichao, minister of the National Health Commission.
Lei said other key health indicators, including infant and maternal mortality rates, have also placed China in the top tier of upper-middle-income economies and countries with populations of more than 100 million.
However, he said the growing burden of chronic diseases in an aging society remains one of the country’s biggest health challenges over the next five years.
“China has about 450 million patients with chronic diseases, and deaths from chronic conditions account for 88.5 percent of all deaths,” Lei said.
“Prolonged sitting, sleep deprivation, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, unhealthy dietary habits and physical inactivity are among the primary contributing factors.”
To address these challenges, the plan emphasizes providing comprehensive, life cycle health services for all citizens, strengthening defenses against major public health threats, building an integrated, high-quality healthcare system and accelerating the adoption of smart and emerging technologies.
The plan calls for advancing smoke-free environments and strengthening smoking cessation services, with the goal of reducing the smoking rate among people aged 15 and above to 20 percent by 2030.
To improve fertility and childcare services, it calls for standardizing infertility diagnosis and treatment services and the application of assisted reproductive technologies, which are expected to receive broader medical insurance coverage. It also promotes labor analgesia services and calls for expanding insurance coverage for such care.
By 2030, the plan also aims to raise the enrollment rate in nursery care facilities for children under the age of three by six percentage points from 2025, helping ease the burden on families and address the nation’s declining birthrate. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
