Recently, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the Opinions on Facilitating the Inheritance, Innovation and Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine (hereinafter referred to as Opinions), proffering 20 suggestions from 6 aspects, namely: improving TCM service system; giving play to the unique role of TCM in maintaining and promoting people's health; vigorously promoting TCM quality enhancement and the high-quality development of TCM industry; strengthening the building of TCM talent team; facilitating the inheritance, openness and innovative development of TCM; reforming and ameliorating the management system and mechanism of TCM. 

In terms of vigorously promoting TCM quality enhancement and the high-quality development of TCM industry, the Opinions purport to strengthen TCM quality control and revise the Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) for Chinese herbal medicine; explore, formulate and implement incentive policies for GAP of Chinese herbal medicine; and improve the third-party quality inspection system, etc. The Opinions also purport to promote quality enhancement of TCM slices and Chinese patent medicines, and expedite the revision of TCM Standard (Volume I) of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia; improve the standard system for TCM slices; explore the establishment of clinical value-oriented evaluation paths, and beef up TCM post-marketing evaluation. The Opinions noted that it is necessary to reform and improve the management of TCM registration, optimize the classification of TCM registration in a timely manner, formulate management regulations for TCM review and approval, implement prioritized review & approval system based on clinical value, and optimize and standardize the record-filing management of TCM preparations in medical institutions. To strengthen the supervision of the quality and safety of TCM, the Opinions clearly stated that it is necessary to implement the principal responsibility of TCM manufacturers, establish a multi-department collaborative supervision mechanism, and explore the establishment of a full-process traceability system for the production, distribution and use of Chinese herbal medicine, TCM slices and Chinese patent medicines; and reinforce the monitoring of adverse reactions of TCM injections.