China's capacity to respond to the H1N1 pandemic alert and future global public health crises

China's response to the World Health Organization's 2009 H1N1 pandemic alert provides an opportunity to make visible its current national capacities for epidemic preparedness and response. This paper is divided into four sections. The first section provides an overview of the international health regulations that govern domestic health policy responses to global infectious diseases. The second recounts briefly how China handled the SARS crisis in 2003 and notes some of the capacity building in public health it has undertaken to remedy for its deficiencies during that crisis. The third section describes how China has responded to the WHO's H1N1 pandemic alert with a view to identifying some weaknesses in its current national capacities for epidemic preparedness and response. The final section identifies how Canada may be able to support China in its strengthening of its vaccine development and production dimension of its national public health capacity.