The regulation indicates that China is standardizing production for traditional Chinese medicine, which will guarantee the quality of the sources of traditional Chinese medicine in China as well as its production. The regulations also contribute to advancement of traditional Chinese medicine in the global market.

Bai Huiliang, director of the safety supervision department of the State Drug Administration, talked about the regulations -- that include some 57 entries in 10 chapters -- at a seminar on the development of Chinese medicine in Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province. Bai said they impose strict quality standards on the growing, gathering, packaging and transporting of traditional Chinese medicinal crops and materials. They also offer tight controls on pesticide residues and heavy metal levels. In terms of different types of traditional Chinese medicinal crops and materials, restrictions are placed on their growing area and growing period. Furthermore, the regulations also stipulate that the places where traditional Chinese medicinal crops are grown must abide by the state’s ecological standards. For instance, irrigation water used for medicinal crops must meet water quality standards for farmland irrigation.

Bai Huiliang said that for those foreign friends who have any doubts about quality control for traditional Chinese medicine, they can now feel at ease knowing the traditional Chinese medicines they use are produced according to standard regulations.

Longstanding differences between the culture of Western medicine and the culture of traditional Chinese medicine have existed for a long time. Many Westerners think that effective and guaranteed traditional Chinese medicine should be produced via strict procedures in a modern workshop installed with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.

As a matter of fact, traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine belong to two different medical systems. The use of herbs in medical treatment has enjoyed over several thousand years’ history in China, and the traditional Chinese medicine has become a part of China’s contributions to the world. Traditional Chinese medicine regards a person’s body as a whole, and its unique approach full of holistic theory is found attractive by many people, no matter whether abroad or at home.

Bai Huiliang stressed that while respecting the uniqueness of traditional Chinese medicine, it is also essential to set up regulations on its production quality, which also can make it more acceptable into Western world.

Many Chinese experts in this field acknowledge that a lack of standards in production has thwarted the pace of acceptance around the world for traditional Chinese medicine. According to some statistics, the sales value for traditional Chinese medicine or herbs throughout the world amounts to US$15 billion per year. However, as the home of traditional Chinese medicine, China can report an export value of Chinese medicine of only US$600 million, making up only 3 percent of the global market.

Of 13,000 medicinal resources, about 500 of these crops that are frequently used as traditional Chinese medicinal haven’t been standardized -- an important reason that contributes to China’s low exports of traditional Chinese medicine.

The absence of standards in production of traditional Chinese medicine was a serious obstacle to world market access. Yu Dequan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor at Peking Union Medical College, thinks that China should promote its own standard system for Chinese traditional medicine. Meanwhile, China should not only try to win acceptance in world medical circles, but also actively encourage every country around the world to adjust some of their regulations and import policies for the good of Chinese medicine.

In fact, in recent years, China has been dedicated to speeding up the process of standardizing traditional Chinese medicine. The modern technological industry base for traditional Chinese medicine in Jilin has built up ten sample bases for growing medicinal crops and materials without pollution. Among these, Jingyu County, which is located in Changbai mountainous area, is the largest growing and processing base for ginseng. It is responsible for building up sample bases for ginseng’s standards for growing. Today, farmers here have been used to operating according to strict rules in seed selection, fertilize application and use of machinery.

“Global competition in traditional Chinese medicine is fierce and cruel. If we want to make a good start in this competition, we have to guarantee a high-quality production,” said Liu Cunzhou, president of China’s Hayao Group.

According to the officials from the State Drug Administration, quality control over production of traditional Chinese medicine is the source of the entire supervision system of the traditional Chinese medicine. China will gradually require every traditional Chinese medicine production enterprise to produce high-quality raw materials according to regulatory requirements, and regard the production of medicinal crops and materials as the "first workshop" for the production of traditional Chinese pills and prepared Chinese medicine (over-the-counter products made in pharmaceutical factories through mass production according to scientific prescriptions), so as to guarantee the use of high quality raw materials to manufacture high quality traditional Chinese medicine.

"This is a huge project, but we are taking it step by step," said Bai Huiliang.

(新华网 [Xinhua News Agency], May 13, 2002, translated by Feng Shu for china.org.cn May 15, 2002)