Alice Han

A viral video from a British patient who flew to Beijing for stomach pain and says she was tested, diagnosed, and treated for about $400 has sparked a bigger conversation.

Why are some foreigners finding faster, cheaper care in China than at home?

And as we discussed in the previous segment, China is under pressure to rebalance its economy away from exports and towards domestic consumption, in particular, the services sector.

Medical tourism is increasingly part of that shift.

Last year, Chinese hospitals treated nearly 1.3 million foreign patients, a sharp post-pandemic jump.

And under the government's Healthy China 2030 initiative, Beijing is actively promoting a mix of modern medicine and traditional Chinese medicine to attract both regional and Western visitors.

But there's a tension.

Public hospitals are already stretched, and some Chinese citizens worry foreigners are benefiting from taxpayer-funded care.

James, you've been following this closely.

What do you make of this rise in medical tourism?

And is China going to turn into a Korea or a Turkey in the sense that a lot of people around the world are just going to go there for cheap operations and healthcare?

You've been on the wait list for a couple of years.

It's broken Britain.

I have so many thoughts about this.

Where do I start, James?

I start with broken Britain.

When I first moved here two years ago from the States, I thought, you know, you can't get worse.

I'm Australian.

You can't get worse than American health care.

But I actually found worse, which is British health care.