Healthy China 2030: a missed opportunity for injury control

On 25 October 2016, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council of China released the Healthy China 2030 blueprint guide. 1 For the first time, a long-term national health initiative includes injury control, as it specifies actions to improve occupational safety, road traffic safety and injury prevention. However, the blueprint misses a fundamental priority for injury control-no specific department or agency is assigned to lead and coordinate the efforts of the multiple departments and social partners working to prevent injuries in China. 2 3

The absence of such a lead agency will seriously impede the development of injury control in China. Most prominently, a top-down professional team is not responsible for injury control, which can compromise nationwide implementation and the use of evidence-based, affordable and easy-to-implement interventions that are used in other nations. The lack of...