Exporting "National Treasures": China hegemony and the globalisation of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine was developed during the administration of Mao Ze Dong from disparate schools of local Chinese Medicine practises and advertised as a "national treasure". In this research I will demonstrate how Mao actually envisioned TCM literally as a source of national treasure and how TCM has become a global export fuelled by Chinese marketing and trade and the hegemonic influence of China in TCAM policy in the World Health Organization.

This excerpt from my doctoral dissertation employs a historical contextualisation of the development of TCM and the subsequent export of TCM in South East Asia and globally, as well as an analysis of the political and economic mechanisms through which China was able to export TCM to every continent. A political economy framework is used with specific case examples of the integration of TCM into the formal health care systems of the Philippines, Cuba and Tanzania. The integration of TCM into formal healthcare systems at the expense of the marginalisation of local traditional medicine will be further assessed, especially in the case study of the Philippines. An assessment of the outcome of this integration in these cases, as well as an analysis of the current and future outcomes of China's hegemonic influence on global TCAM policy will be offered.