In the 1970s, prior to the implementation of free market reforms, China’s healthcare system was primarily public and nearly universal. However, the government began to reduce subsidies to healthcare in the mid-1980s, creating a system wherein it owned nearly all of China’s hospitals but did not finance most healthcare costs, shifting the burden of paying for healthcare to the patients. In order to address this concern, the Chinese government has significantly increased funding to the health system and is attempting to expand medical coverage to China’s rural population.

Substance abuse has grown rapidly in the past few years in China, and with it, rates of addiction. There has been a decline in the use of heroin in favor of an increase in the use of synthetic drugs such as methamphetamines, ketamine, and ecstasy, which are often imported from North Korea. Cocaine has also grown in popularity. The Yunnan province in China has long been a center of opium production and a hub of heroin trafficking.