China’s universal healthcare reform: the first phase [2009–2011] of the ambitious plan

China is the country with the largest population and the second largest economic market in the world. Since the “reform and open policy” in 1978, China with its people has achieved unprecedented, fast-growing development. However, continuous healthcare crises, such as increasing incidence of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS, the epidemic outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, the milk scandal, etc., relatively reflect the aspects of China’s vulnerable health system (1).