Geneva – September 20, 2026 -- China's leading hospitals serving international patients recorded 1.28 million international patient visits in 2025, up 73.6% from three years earlier, Dr. John K. Hsiang, Chairman of Jiahui Health's Executive Committee, said at the WTO Public Forum 2026.
Inbound patient volumes surge past 1.28 million visits in 2025
Of the 1.28 million total visits, 413,000 were made by patients who travelled to China specifically for medical care, according to data cited by Dr. Hsiang. At Jiahui Health, overseas patient inquiries nearly doubled year on year in the first half of 2026. Dr. Hsiang was the sole Chinese healthcare representative invited to the forum's "Health Without Borders" session on medical tourism in services trade.
Visa-free transit and drug pipeline dominance widen access
Citizens of 57 countries are currently eligible for China's 240-hour visa-free transit policy across 65 ports, easing entry for medical travellers. China now accounts for 33.7% of drugs in global development, a pipeline scale that is drawing patients seeking treatments unavailable elsewhere.
World-first CAR-T approval pulls in cross-border cancer patients
In June 2026, China approved the world's first CAR-T therapy for a solid tumor. A New Zealand patient with advanced gastric cancer travelled to Shanghai shortly after approval and became the therapy's first international recipient. Separately, a U.S. patient with non-small cell lung cancer came to Jiahui to receive ivonescimab, a bispecific antibody currently available only in China, after consulting his physician at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Jiahui logs over 100,000 international outpatient visits in 2025
Jiahui Health recorded more than 100,000 international outpatient visits in 2025 and has built cross-border capabilities including international insurance direct billing, remote consultation and multilingual patient coordination. Dr. Hsiang positioned Shanghai as a gateway linking Chinese medical innovation with global patients.
Executive calls for visa facilitation and cross-border data rules
Dr. Hsiang urged greater international cooperation on medical travel and visa facilitation, expanded access to information on medical innovation, and regulatory dialogue on cross-border health data and telemedicine. "Medical tourism sits at the intersection of healthcare, trade and economic development," he said, adding that China could become a leading global destination for international medical care within three to five years.