Patrick Beyrer is a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania studying East Asian Languages & Civilizations. He is interested in Chinese history, healthcare, modern culture, and their intersections. He also conducts medical research at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and interns at an investigative research and due diligence firm.
In the last 20 years, Beijing has turned healthcare into a national priority. But the country's history of counterfeit drugs and weak regulation casts a lingering shadow. The topic is particularly pertinent now, with Beijing's COVID-19 vaccine diplomacy in full swing.
In 1835, an American missionary and a Chinese merchant opened the first permanent Western-style hospital in China, curing thousands of people of various ailments and diseases — and even blindness, if you believe the reports.
In 2011, Xi Jinping unveiled an ambitious plan to turn Chinese soccer from a national humiliation to a point of pride. Nine years on — at the start of a pandemic-delayed Chinese Super League season — how has Xi's Great Soccer Dream fared, and how have recent events altered its goals?