China taps soft power to send its best doctors to Rwanda. But is there a ‘commercial motive’?
- Since 1982, medical teams have been the flagship of China’s foreign aid in Rwanda, being central to Beijing’s healthcare diplomacy
- Despite criticism that China’s medical aid is business-motivated, some say the medical cooperation still makes it a win-win situation
Dr Lu Wei Xi, 52, cannot speak Kinyarwanda – Rwanda’s national language – yet she can still perform an emergency caesarean section with a Rwandan surgical team.
The Chinese national attributes their seamless coordination to international standards set for surgical procedures.
“I know where they need my cooperation, they know where they need to assist me,” said Lu, an obstetrician and gynaecologist stationed at Kibungo Referral Hospital in eastern Rwanda.
“It’s like two dancers whose actions speak louder than words,” she said in Mandarin.
Dr Lu is one of 12 healthcare professionals dispatched by the Chinese government to provide medical aid in Rwanda for a year.
Working alongside her in the 23rd Chinese medical team to have been sent to Rwanda are a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner, two orthopaedists and a dentist, among other specialists. They are accompanied by two chefs and a translator.