A top health official is calling for more support for traditional Chinese medicine and is proposing that TCM innovation and research are made a priority in national science and technology strategies.

"China has real advantages in the innovation of traditional Chinese medicine," said Wang Guoqiang, head of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. "We have great potential in the innovation of TCM."

The genre has gained much attention since Tu Youyou, a TCM researcher, won the 2015 Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering the malaria-fighting drug artemisinin. Wang said it is likely TCM will make more such contributions to the life sciences.