This book explores the shifting nature of physician–patient relationship in China. Specifically, it takes the physician–patient relationship during the barefoot doctor program in 1968–1978, the marketization of healthcare in 1978–2002, and the healthcare reform in 2003–2020 as three historical periods, illustrating how the nature of the physician–patient relationship has changed over time. Analyzing the ways in which law and social policies—involving the doctrine of informed consent, public hospital reform, and systemic healthcare reform—have in different ways shaped and changed the practices of physicians and patients, which illustrates how the bond between them threatens to collapse. With a uniquely vivid depiction of Chinese healthcare issues, this book will interest sociologists, China scholars and more.

Jia Liu is an Associate Research Professor at the Institute of Public Policy, South China University of China. She holds a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include global justice, bioethics, and health care reform in China.