ABSTRACT
In the early twentieth century, reflecting on the national crisis created by foreign powers' aggressive encroachment on China, Chinese intellectual elites identified the physical weakness of the people as contributing to China's national debility. Administrative control was mainly reflected in the establishment of the three-tier medical system in rural areas, which was parallel to China's administrative system. This chapter explores how these efforts in medicine and health work in rural areas contributed to the nation-building process in the early socialist era. It focuses on the aspects of social conformity, institutional strengthening, and political indoctrination through the study of the expansion of medical manpower, disease surveillance, and health publicity respectively. The Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) focus was on patriotism to safeguard the new country from external threat during the Korean War. In line with its political ideologies of socialism and patriotism, the CCP launched continuous disease prevention and eradication campaigns in rural areas.
