From September 19 to 20, 2016, Vice Minister Xu Nanping met with Dr.Francis Collins, Director of U.S. National Institutes of Health, had a bilateral meeting on China-U.S. health cooperation and signed an MoU on Health and Medical Sciences Cooperation with Aciting Deputy Secretary Mary K. Wakefield of U.S. Department of Health & Human Services in Washington D.C.. Vice Minister Xu also had a meeting with Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator Lek Kadeli, U.S.Environmental Protection Agency on advancing China-U.S.environmental S&T cooperation.

At the National Institutes of Health(NIH), Vice Minister Xu and Director Collins held a bilateral meeting on China-U.S. health science and technology cooperation. The two sides agreed to establish a joint working group mechanism on health and medical sciences cooperation on the basis of existing cooperation.

Vice Minister Xu also visited the NIH Clinical Center, including the center for pediatric diseases, center for metabolic diseases and center for chronic diseases. Dr. John I. Gallin, Director of NIH Clinical Center, said that the center follows the “from hospital bed to laboratory” concept which combines clinicians and medical researchers to facilitate collaboration and promote interdisciplinary research on difficult and complicated diseases. Vice Minister Xu discussed with the center‘s administrators and researchers and expressed the willingness to promote exchanges and cooperation with the center in clinical medicine.

At the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Vice Minister Xu held a bilateral meeting with Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator Kadeli on China-U.S. cooperation in environmental science and technology. The two sides reached consensus on expanding and deepening cooperation and agreed to set up a joint working group to promote the renewal of the memorandum of understanding on cooperation in environmental science and technology.

During the visit,Vice Minister Xu and Acting Deputy Secretary Wakefield signed the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China and the Department of Health & Human Services of the United States of America on Health and Medical Sciences Cooperation. Signed within the framework of the Agreement between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the United States of America on Cooperation in Science and Technology, the MoU identities priority areas and working mechanism for China-U.S.health S&T cooperation, charting the direction for our synergy in the next five years.