Nation now has deeper understanding of traditional practice's role, he says

President Xi Jinping has stressed the significance of using modern science to interpret the principles of traditional Chinese medicine and integrating Chinese and Western medicines to advance the traditional medical practice that stretches back thousands of years.

During an inspection trip to Nanyang, Henan province, on Wednesday, Xi said the Chinese nation has relied on TCM for medical treatment for thousands of years.

"Having fought against COVID-19, SARS and other major infectious diseases, we have a deeper understanding of the role of TCM," said Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

During the trip, Xi visited a memorial to Zhang Zhongjing, a famous Chinese pharmacologist and physician of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), where he learned about Zhang's life story and his contributions to the development of TCM.

Deputy curator of the memorial Yang Lei, who also served as Xi's guide during the trip, said Xi displayed a keen interest in TCM culture and had a deep understanding of its fundamental theories and clinical practices.

At the memorial, Xi had a careful look at the therapies described in the Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases, the famous work of TCM that was compiled by Zhang at the beginning of the third century, Yang said.

Xi has called in recent years for steps to accelerate the development of TCM a number of times.

At a meeting on March 6 with national political advisers from the education, medical and health sectors, he said that China should prioritize the preservation and development of TCM, with steps to establish a service system, service model, management pattern and pattern for the training of talent.

During a symposium with experts and scholars in June, he highlighted the need to further explore TCM classics, reform and refine the review and approval mechanism of TCM, and promote the research and development of new pharmaceuticals and the growth of industries.

China has issued two policy documents on the development of TCM, in 2019 and this year, that set out a number of measures to strengthen the sector's skills base and enhance its role in disease treatment and prevention.

Xinhua contributed to this story.