Doctor's Notes #6: A Spring Check-In from CHP
Recent reads, listens, and notes ahead of my April travels in China
Hello CHP readers,
It’s been a while since my last Doctor’s Notes, and high time for an update!
I’ll be spending all of April in China, mostly across Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. I try to use one trip each year for deeper research and more intentional insights (here are my reflections from last year), where I catch up properly with government, public sector, health policy, biotech and digital health, and wider industry circles.
I’m really looking forward to meeting old and new faces alike over the next month. If you’re in any of those cities and would like to meet, please do reach out.
And if there’s something you’d like for me to keep an eye on while I’m there, whether a question, trend, company, policy signal or just something you’re curious about, do send it over!
The timing feels especially good this year. April is one of the loveliest months to be in China, with good weather and blossom, and it also looks to be a particularly interesting moment to be in the mix of things: only a few weeks after the 2026 Two Sessions and the 15th Five-Year Plan, and with Trump’s possible visit to China still pending…
The volume of coverage on China biotech and healthtech only continues to rise, but here are a few things to read and listen to that I’ve been part of, or liked recently.
保持联系!
Ruby
Notes from my 2025 research trip:
Articles & Reports
📰 Jack Ma-Backed Ant Bets on AI Health in $69 billion Sector Race - Lulu Chen & Amber Tong, Bloomberg News, 10th Feb 2026
I was interviewed in this Bloomberg piece, which explores the rise of Ant Afu, one of China’s most prominent digital health platforms, and the country’s broader race to integrate AI-powered care services more deeply into everyday digital life. Ant Afu’s explosive growth (over 300 million users in less than a year) in an already competitive and maturing market, offers an important window into the commercial logic, platform competition and care pathways that are defining how AI is succeeding in becoming embedded into daily life in China.
See my follow-up substack post on Ant Afu for more reflections:
📰 China’s overstretched healthcare looks to AI boom - Rebecca Bailey, AFP, 3 March 2026
I also spoke with AFP about the broader conditions behind China’s healthtech boom: including its years of digital infrastructure build-out and ever-rising pressure on hospitals and clinicians. We discussed why these tools are gaining traction now, what problems they are actually being used to solve, and what their spread reveals about China’s attempt to manage demand, workforce strain and uneven access across the system.
📰 China approves brain chip to treat paralysis: a world first - Rachel Fieldhouse & Xiaoying You, Nature, 16 March 2026
Out of the many health and technology stories coming out of China, this one caught my eye: NMPA regulators have approved what is being described as the world’s first commercially available implantable brain-computer interface, designed to help patients with severe paralysis restore hand movement through brain-driven control of an external glove. The device itself is highly specific and still early in its real-world clinical relevance, but the wider significance lies in what it suggests about China’s growing ambitions in frontier medical devices and neurotechnology.
📰 Why more foreigners are seeking health care in China - The Economist, 5 Feb 2026
A recent Economist piece on why more foreigners are seeking healthcare in China, in a reversal that would have felt surprising not long ago. The story is still niche and concentrated in major cities, but it is a striking sign of how much times are changing.
📰 China’s Evolving Global Health Leadership - Gareth Jones, Zhida Shang, Ruby Wang, Think Global Health, 13 Jan 2026
An essay I wrote with fellow Schwarzman alumni on China’s evolving global health leadership, and how Beijing is expanding its role through the Health Silk Road, bilateral partnerships, local manufacturing and digital health cooperation.
📝 Roundup of population & fertility proposals at China’s 2026 national “two sessions” - Yuzhe He’s Substack
There’s been plenty of analysis around the recent 15th Five-Year Plan, but I thought this was an especially useful deep dive from Yuzhe He’s Substack into population management and the wider health system and public policy issues tied up with it.
Podcasts
🎧 China’s Biotech Rise and the Future of Global Health - Perspectives with Wenchi, 14 Jan 2026
A fun conversation with Wenchi Yu on how China’s biotech sector has become a major force in global health innovation. We explored the drivers behind that rise, including long-term state planning, regulatory reform, R&D investment, and clinical scale, as well as the tensions this creates for Western governments and companies navigating both opportunity and “China risk.”
🎧 The Hale Report, with Ruby Wang - Lyric Hughes Hale, EconVue, 2 Jan 2026
I joined Lyric on The Hale Report Podcast for a wide-ranging discussion on China’s healthcare system and what it reveals about technology, governance, and global risk. We covered everything from digital infrastructure and AI to ageing, access, doctor-patient tension, and why Western assumptions about China’s health system often lag reality.
▶️ AI Meets Healthcare in China: Can Technology Fix a Fragmented System, with Winnie Yip & Ruby Wang - Lizzi Lee, Asia Society Policy Institute, Center for China Analysis, 18 March 2026
I recently joined Professor Winnie Yip at Harvard University and Lizzi Lee at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, to talk about how technology is reshaping China’s healthcare system. We discussed the speed and scale of China’s digital health transformation, why China has become such an important test bed for healthtech, what problems these tools are actually being asked to solve, and why the real challenge is not only innovation itself, but whether it is improving care in a way that is meaningful, equitable and sustainable in practice.
Recent CHP Podcasts you may have missed:
Investing in East-West Biotech: The 2026 State of Play - with China Biotech Dealmaker, Dr Leon Tang
Biotech dealmaker Dr Leon Tang updates us on the 2026 state of play in East-West biotech investing, what has actually changed beneath the recent surge in optimism, and how the market is shifting towards broader therapeutic areas, more creative structures, and growing confidence in Chinese development capability itself.
Starmer in Beijing: Health, Science and Europe-China Relations - with Professor Kerry Brown
Sinologist and writer Professor Kerry Brown talks about the changing health, science and medicine relationship between China, the UK and Europe. Recorded around Starmer’s Beijing visit, we talked about what responsible engagement with China should look like in an era when China is no longer just learning from the West, but increasingly defining global frontier research and innovation.
Scaling a Leading Global Biotech from China - with Josh Smiley, President and COO of Zai Lab
An in-depth conversation with Josh Smiley, President and COO of Zai Lab, on the realities of building a global biotech from China. We explored Zai Lab’s cross-border model, the rise of China-origin innovation and the practical hurdles in the sector, from capital to capability to credibility.
Books
And an update on some of the books I’ve been enjoying recently, all by authors whose book talks I had the pleasure of attending in London over recent months. They each somehow connect in different ways to questions of health, society and change in China, but they are also just very good books: thoughtful, well-written and worth your time.
📚 The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet - Yi-Ling Liu
My friend Yi-Ling has just published a beautifully reported exploration of the Chinese internet over the past three decades, exploring censorship and surveillance alongside subculture, creativity and the everyday negotiations of life under control told through human stories behind the firewall.
📚 Embedded Generations: Family Life and Social Change in Contemporary China - Liu Jieyu
A deeply researched account of family life and social change in contemporary China. Drawing on 260 life histories and ethnographic research, looking at how childhood, marriage, intimacy and ageing have evolved since 1949, to provide a layered picture of continuity, adaptation and difference across generations, gender and the urban-rural divide.
📚 An A-Z of Chinese Food (Recipe not included) - Jenny Lau
A sharp and funny series of short essays on food, identity and culture by HK-British cook and writer, Jenny Lau.