Health promotion activities in China from the Ottawa Charter to the Bangkok Charter: revolution to evolution

Abstract

China has the world's largest population. In the past, the public health system in mainland China has been strongly influenced by the former Soviet Union. Hong Kong and Macao, the Special Administrative Regions (SAR), have been under colonial administration adopting a laisser-faire approach to health policy. Over the most recent decades, mainland China and the two SARs have adopted the Ottawa Charter principles and re-orientated the healthcare systems towards greater community participation, built a healthy environment in different settings and developed capacity in health promotion. Positive results have resulted from efforts to move towards a bottom-up approach to health promotion, using the overarching framework of Healthy Settings. Adequate resources will be needed to build up the infrastructure for sustainable development of health promotion initiatives. This report is selective, rather than comprehensive and will highlight specific health promotion activities in different parts of China, reflecting how the approach to health promotion has evolved since Ottawa. An analysis will be made of the potentials of these initiatives to take forward the spirit of the Ottawa Charter in paving the way for the Bangkok Charter.