Chinese doctors provide medical examinations for the local people in Kigali, Rwanda, on March 27, 2023. Photo:Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday met with representatives of an event in Beijing marking 60th anniversary of China dispatching its first international medical aid team abroad, extending regards to all those who are or were on foreign medical aid missions. 

Thirty outstanding groups and 60 outstanding individuals in foreign aid medical work were honored at the commendation event on Friday morning. Xi spoke with medical workers and posed for photos together with them graciously, according to the Xinhua News Agency. 

Speaking at the event, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong said that the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee attaches great importance to foreign medical aid missions. Liu encouraged medical workers to continue to carry forward the spirit of China's medical teams, and make a greater contribution to promoting the building of a health and wellness community for mankind, Xinhua reported. 

To date, China has sent nearly 30,000 medical aid workers to 76 countries and regions, treating nearly 300 million patients, and helping build 130 healthcare facilities overseas, training 100,000 local medical professionals, according data from National Health Commission (NHC).

According to He Zhaohua, deputy head of NHC's international cooperation department, China is the world's only country to dispatch overseas medical aid groups continuously over the past six decades, and these longstanding partnerships are based on equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit.

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, China, under great pressure to prevent and control the epidemic itself, quickly dispatched 38 Chinese teams of medical experts to 34 countries to combat the virus. China has also declared vaccines to be a global public good, providing more than 2.2 billion doses of vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations, He remarked.

Global Times