J2J Fellow Takes On China’s Health Problems

Thomson Reuters correspondent Sui-lee Wee works in a country where health issues are at the forefront of the public discussion and a matter of international scrutiny. Sui-Lee started out covering the Southeast Asian stock markets before completing her master’s degree in business journalism at New York University in 2008. She now covers politics and general news in China, but also deals with human rights and health issues.

She has reported on HIV/AIDS and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which are serious problems facing China because of a lingering stigma associated with the former and a lack of regulation on environmental circumstances surrounding the latter. Originally from Singapore, she was one of 12 international journalists picked to attend the NPF global health training event prior to the Global Health Council’s annual conference in June. Based in Beijing, Sui-Lee spoke with me about one of her recent articles.

Q: One of your most recent stories was on the World Bank and the issues facing China’s economy if it doesn’t deal with its problem of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

That came to us in a press release. The World Bank was going to issue a report on NCDs. Before I went to that briefing, I spoke to one of the officials with the WHO here in China, and also another health care analyst looking at China to see what the broader implications of the report would be. I also asked for the report to be given to me under embargo, so that I could have time to look through it and talk to more people before the story came out.

Q: Do you foresee the problem of NCDs becoming worse in China?

I think China is starting to realize now that they have a problem, but the problem with that is even with the recognition they have to overhaul how they think about dealing with NCDs, so it can no longer be a single-sector policy focus. They need to do a multi-sector approach to it, and that means changing the ways cities work around here, and changing lifestyles. It can’t just be the property of the Ministry of Health; it needs to go across the various ministries. I think they haven’t cottoned on to that yet.

Q: Do you think they will?

Yes I think they will, but it will be a long, long process, just because of the way bureaucracy works here.

Q: What is your approach to finding and reporting these stories?

Sometimes I get calls from people, just telling me they have a story they want to talk about, and I have a lot of contacts in the rights movement, among the activists, AIDS and all. They’ll tell me if there’s a new regulation that’s coming up or there’s a story that’s been under-covered. Just going out and talking to people.

Q: What areas of health coverage are you currently focusing on?

Environmental health is another thing I’m looking closely at, because pollution is such a big problem here in China, [specifically] from lead pollution and factories dumping waste into rivers.

Q: Why do you think it’s important to report on health issues in China?

There are 1.3 billion people here, it’s 20 percent of the world’s population. It’s a matter of public concern. The reason SARS spread so fast is because China tried to suppress the information. I just see a duty to be a journalist here.

Q: What stories are you working on now?

The most recent big event that happened here was a high-speed train crash in eastern China. I’m working on a few follow-up stories on that [involving] the state media’s coverage.