OFF THE RECORD
I had first visited Peoples Republic of China in 1985 when China had just opened itself to the outside world. Accompanied by my friend Dr. M.H. A Baig a noted ENT Head and Neck Surgeon and Editor of Pakistan Journal of Otolaryngology in those days, we travelled to China to attend the International Laryngeal conference in Shenyang which is located about a thousand miles from Beijing. During this visit, we also visited Chinese Medical Association offices, met it’s office bearers besides visiting Institute of Ophthalmology and Institute of ENT Diseases at Beijing. Apart from visiting the historic Great Wall and other tourist attractions like Summer Palace, the Great Peoples Hall, our next visit was to Shanghai where we also visited the Shanghai University.
My second visit to China was in the Year 2006, followed by visits during 2008 and 2009 to attend joint meeting of European Congress of Cardiology and Chinese Cardiology Society. I had a chance to visit Shanghai again after thirty-eight years in the last week of March and also went to Changsha the provincial capital of Hunan province. The country has changed a lot during all these years. The enormous development and progress it has made is reflected in high rise multistory buildings everywhere.
The objective of the current visit which lasted from March 20th to March 28th 2024 was to enhance academic collaboration between Chinese researchers and Pakistan. We get lot of research papers from China for publication and a large number of them are not accepted for various reasons as we practice open peer review system and no paper is accepted for publication which does not come up to a certain standard. Monetary benefits have never been an attraction for us and we wish to safeguard the integrity and credibility of the journal. On an invitation from my friend Alex Li who had arranged my visit, we had in depth discussions with members of the medical profession in China not only during visit to different hospitals but also at dinner meetings which some of the Chinese doctor friends had hosted in my honour.
It was a great learning experience for me as well. During my presentations at Surgical Intensive Care Unit of Shanghai Xinhua Hospital in Shanghai and at Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery in Changsha First Hospital in Hunan province I shared with the participants some of the useful tips which will minimize the chances of trauma to their manuscripts submitted to Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences. They were also informed about the types of manuscripts which we prefer for publication. Most often I had to use the services of my friend Alex Li who worked as interpreter so that myself and the Chinese participants could understand each other much better. Hence I was able to convey my message effectively and also understood their view point. During the lively discussions which followed the presentation, we discussed in detail how to further enhance our academic collaboration.
Before this visit, I had a very useful and fruitful meeting with Chinese Consul General at Karachi Mr. Yang Yundong who expressed keen desire to help Pakistan in education and healthcare as well. (The story appears in this issue on Page-3). However, since some of our “Friends” do not like this ever increasing friendship and all round collaboration with Peoples Republic of China, each one of us has to be very careful. The law enforcing agencies and intelligence agencies in particular have to be extremely alert and keep an eye on what is happening in the country and in the region in particular to foil all attempts to destroy this friendship with China which is one of our best friends in the world today helping to improve our economy as well as helping us in almost every field.
I will be sharing my observations of this eight-day memorable visit to Shanghai one of the most well developed city in China which is also their financial and business capital and an important port city, visit to Changsha in Hunan province and discussions which I had with healthcare professionals and researchers in China in a series of write-ups which will appear in Pulse Internaitonal in the coming days. Those interested my follow all this.
