July 20 and July 22, 2022

Zoom meeting

The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the National School of Development at Peking University convened the seventh Track II Dialogue on Healthcare virtually through Zoom on July 20 and 22, 2022. The dialogue brought together American and Chinese experts from academia, think tanks, and industry for off-the-record discussions on healthcare issues pertaining to both countries.

Held in the third year of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting occurred at a time when fraught relations between the two countries have made cooperation on the pandemic and other health issues challenging. Despite the difficult geopolitical climate, participants were encouraged by the virtual meeting, identifying several areas for potential collaboration, such as on new COVID treatments, increasing ties between healthcare agencies, and promoting data sharing in nonsensitive areas. They expressed hope that they could meet in person next year and repeatedly emphasized that healthcare cooperation should set an example for Sino-American collaboration in other areas, as it historically has not been as controversial as some other fields. The two sides developed a consensus agreement, which was distributed to both governments.