The “14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine” sets forth that by 2025, TCM’s capacity to deliver health services will be significantly enhanced; the policies and systems for the high-quality development of TCM will be further refined; positive results will be achieved in revitalizing and developing TCM; and TCM’s unique advantages in the construction of a Healthy China will be fully brought into play. To better highlight the achievements of TCM development and reflect the requirements for high-quality development within the TCM sector, the Plan quantifies its development goals, adhering to the principles of comprehensiveness, representativeness, and data availability. Focusing on key tasks such as building a high-quality and efficient TCM service system, enhancing TCM’s capacity to provide health services, and promoting the thriving development of TCM culture, the Plan establishes 15 major development indicators. These indicators embody the development approach of “consolidating the foundations, addressing shortcomings, strengthening weak areas, and leveraging strengths,” thereby further harnessing the distinctive advantages of TCM, fostering complementary and coordinated development between TCM and Western medicine, and ultimately achieving the anticipated goals of high-quality TCM development. Specifically, this is reflected in:

First, we will steadfastly regard “building a high-quality and efficient TCM service system” as the core task of the plan, as this constitutes the “foundation” for the development of TCM. To support this task, the plan sets forth 10 specific indicators.

First, With the goal of enhancing the public’s sense of gain from TCM services, this framework emphasizes expanding the scale of TCM medical resources and elevating their level of development, and sets forth four core indicators: “number of TCM medical institutions,” “number of TCM hospitals,” “number of beds in public TCM hospitals per 1,000 population,” and “number of licensed (assistant) TCM physicians per 1,000 population.” These indicators reflect both the scale of the TCM medical service system and the per capita availability of TCM resources. Second, With the goal of addressing shortcomings, efforts have been intensified to strengthen the grassroots TCM service network by establishing three indicators: “coverage rate (%) of county-level TCM medical institutions (hospitals, outpatient departments, and clinics),” “proportion (%) of community health service centers and township health stations that have established TCM clinics,” and “number of TCM general practitioners per 10,000 population.” These indicators reflect the degree of balanced development of TCM and further underscore the leading role of county-level TCM hospitals as the flagship grassroots TCM healthcare institutions, thereby laying the foundation for achieving full coverage of TCM services at the grassroots level. Third is With the goal of strengthening strengths and addressing weaknesses, emphasis is placed on the level of resource allocation for TCM clinical departments in public general hospitals, maternal and child health care institutions, and other medical facilities. To this end, three indicators have been established: “Number of TCM beds in public general hospitals,” “Proportion (%) of public general hospitals at or above Level II that have TCM clinical departments,” and “Proportion (%) of secondary-level maternal and child health care institutions that have TCM clinical departments.” These indicators reflect that other medical institutions constitute an important component in the delivery of TCM services and underscore a development paradigm characterized by coordinated advancement of TCM and Western medicine.

Second, we will steadfastly regard “enhancing TCM’s capacity to deliver health services” as a key task in the plan, with the goal of “leveraging our strengths” and further capitalizing on the distinctive advantages of TCM. To this end, four specific indicators have been established under this task.

First, It is proposed that TCM hospitals must adhere to the fundamental principle of “being Chinese in nature,” with strengthened allocation of TCM physician resources in public TCM hospitals and the establishment of an indicator specifying the proportion (%) of licensed (assistant) TCM physicians in public TCM hospitals at or above the secondary level. Second, In line with the principle of providing all-round, full-cycle health protection for the people, efforts have been strengthened to develop and improve the systems of geriatric health and rehabilitation services in TCM hospitals. Two indicators have been established: “the proportion of TCM hospitals at or above Level II that have established rehabilitation (medical) departments (%)” and “the proportion of public TCM hospitals at or above Level II that have established geriatric medicine departments (%),” thereby reflecting the fundamental development requirement of putting the people at the center. Third is In accordance with the overarching principles of “integrating peacetime and wartime preparedness, combining full-time and part-time personnel, ensuring coordinated collaboration, and enabling rapid response,” efforts will be further intensified to strengthen traditional Chinese medicine’s capacity for emergency medical rescue and to elevate the ability of TCM hospitals to prevent and control major infectious diseases. The inclusion of “the proportion (%) of tertiary public TCM hospitals and integrated TCM–Western medicine hospitals (excluding specialized TCM hospitals) that have established fever clinics” as the sole binding indicator in the planning framework underscores the high expectations the state has placed on TCM for epidemic prevention and control in the post-COVID-19 era, and highlights the indispensable role TCM will play in future emergency responses to emerging and sudden infectious diseases and public health emergencies.

Third, we must steadfastly regard “promoting the thriving development of traditional Chinese medicine culture” as the primary task in the development of TCM. TCM not only effectively safeguards and enhances the health of the people, but also continuously strengthens cultural confidence, thereby providing a powerful driving force for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The plan takes Chinese citizens’ knowledge, belief, and practice regarding TCM as its core content and establishes the indicator “Level of Citizens’ Health Culture Literacy in TCM (%)” to reflect the extent to which TCM has been integrated into the people’s production and daily life, as well as the effectiveness of promoting TCM culture and the social climate conducive to its development.