Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Volume 17 Issue 1 Article 6 Winter 2010 Pursuing Health as Foreign Policy: The Case of China Yanzhong Huang Seton Hall University Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls Part of the Health Law and Policy Commons, International Law Commons, and the Law and Politics Commons Recommended Citation Huang, Yanzhong (2010) "Pursuing Health as Foreign Policy: The Case of China," Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies: Vol. 17 : Iss. 1 , Article 6. Available at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol17/iss1/6 This Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies by an authorized editor of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Pursuing Health as Foreign Policy: The Case of China YANZHONG HUANG* I. INTRODUCTION: HEALTH, FOREIGN POLICY, AND CHINA "Health is today a growing concern in foreign policy," the Director- General of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced with the foreign ministers of Norway and France in an editorial last year.1 Although health has long been a foreign policy issue, 2 health was historically separate from foreign policy: the study and practice of foreign policy neglected public health, and public health was predominantly a domestic policy concern.3 It was not until the 1980s that an unprecedented collision of the worlds of health and foreign policy began to occur. Events and developments in the political and epidemiological world-globalization, the rise of infectious disease, and the end of the Cold War-highlighted the importance of health as a key element of development and security policy.