Among top buys like electric cookers and toilet seats, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was among the most unexpected items on Chinese tourists' overseas shopping lists during the country's 2016 Lunar New Year, when Chinese spent a record 90 billion yuan (US$13.80 billion) overseas.

A Japanese tourist is looking at Artemisia annua, or sweet wormwood, which contains the active ingredient that Tu Youyou extracted to treat malaria, in the Luofushan Mountain Scenic Area in China's southern Guangdong Province. [Photo/China.org.cn]

From flu medicine to pain killers, "made in Japan" TCM has become a hit with Chinese consumers. Kobayashi, a global based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan, recently revealed that Chinese consumers' shopping frenzy has contributed to a surge in its sales revenue during Q2 of last year, five times higher than that of the same period in 2014, according to Sankei News.

"Although it is a little bit expensive, foreign-made TCM is more standardized," said a veteran overseas buyer named Chen Liying who thinks the quality of those medicines reassures consumers. "Its chemical composition and possible adverse reactions are clarified."

Supply-side overhaul

Known as Kampo, or Kanpo, the traditional Japanese therapeutic treatment is mostly derived from classical Chinese medicine. Nowadays, most of the pharmaceutical companies in Japan import materials from China and follow Chinese procedures, using Chinese technology to process them.

"What makes it more superior is that Japanese pay more attention to selecting genuine and pure materials in making their products," said Wang Guangji, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and former vice president of China Pharmaceutical University. He told the reporter that China definitely mastered the technology of producing such products but needs tougher quality control in its materials and craftsmanship.

In addition to its declining market share in the domestic market, "made in China" TCM products are also precarious in the global market outside China as it is faced with cutthroat competition from its two neighbors. A statistic shows that Japanese and South Korean TCM products account for almost 90% of the global market, not including China.

Li Xiulin, also deputy to the NPC and president of Jilin Aodong Medicine, expressed his remorse regarding the Chinese overseas shopping spree for TCM products and echoed Wang's analysis, saying that supply-side reform also applies to pharmaceutical companies who need to focus on the medicine's quality in order to meet growing market demands.

NPC deputy and president of Yangtze River Pharmaceuticals, Xu Jingren urged an overhaul in the supply-side, stressing that quality is the lifeline of a company and its products. He said his company is beefing up investment for TCM research and development.

Going global

When Tu Youyou won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of a novel Malaria therapy, artemisinin, TCM once again gained global attention.

Drawn from valuable research experiences in developing artemisinin, the Nobel laureate believes that "Chinese medicine and pharmacology are great treasures that should be explored and raised to a higher level."

According to a U.S. research report, 50% of its citizens have seen or are willing to see TCM practitioners. It was also revealed that almost 45,000 people work in the trade with patients receiving TCM services at an average of two times annually.

Zhang Boli, president of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and also a deputy to the NPC, said there are 2,000 foreign students from 130 countries on his campus, all coming to learn the trade.

Despite its worldwide popularity, the scientific effects and benefits of TCM are still being debated in the western world, which, in Wang's words, is caused by a lack of understanding.

"Through thousands of years of clinical trials, TCM has already proved itself to be effective in curing many kinds of diseases," said the deputy who specializes in western medicine. "But important terms like Yin (substance) and Yang (energy), whose balance are essential for harmonious operation of the body, according to traditional Chinese medicine, would hardly be accepted by foreigners."

Wang noted we should try to explain and interpret TCM theory through existing concepts in western medicine, such as the adjustment of the neurological, endocrine and immune systems, hoping that the government would support this initiative in order to modernize and globalize TCM.

Promoting traditional Chinese medicine and its globalization are on the agenda of Premier Li Keqiang's government work report and the draft outline of the 13th Five Year Plan, which includes protecting Chinese medicine resources, setting up a database for TCM ancient texts as well as speeding up research and development of new therapies.