The Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Health and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine jointly announced on Tuesday a plan for international co-operation on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The scheme aims to use cutting-edge science and technology to support the development of TCM.

The research proposed by the plan will focus on developing TCM therapies for nerve disorders, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and AIDS, while also establishing international standards for TCM and promoting the dissemination of knowledge about TCM.

The Ministry of Science and Technology will earmark 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million) for joint projects with international partners to develop 50 types of TCM medicines, and a special fund will be set up to attract capital from other countries for research into TCM medicines.

This plan, the first of its kind, may open up new fields for the use of TCM, while also further combining it with Western medical practices.

With a history of more than 2,000 years, TCM has its own theories and methodologies based on the accumulated experience of many generations of practitioners. Thousands of recipes exist which have been tailored by patients' reactions down the generations.

The method of feeling the pulse, looking at the tongue and even smelling a patient helps a TCM doctor alter the ingredients of a recipe. Such an empirical diagnostic approach is totally different from Western medicine.

This has proven quite effective in treating some chronic diseases since TCM theory helps a doctor find the causes behind the symptoms, while changing the amount of ingredients according to the conditions of the patient targets the root of an ailment and sometimes mobilizes the entire immune system to fight the disease.  

But this method has its shortcomings. A TCM doctor prescribing a concoction of different herbs only knows that it can treat a certain kind of ailment, but can hardly tell why and how it works because he or she does not know what kind of workable chemical the combination of those herbs has produced.

This is just where the research efforts are needed most.

Overseas investment will make it possible to conduct research into some areas such as the relationship between TCM diagnostic approach and the causes of some diseases.

We do not expect this research to unlock all of the secrets of TCM. But something needs to be done to make TCM theory and methodology known to the outside world in terms of the history of its development and its success rate. This plan heralds the start of serious work in this regard.