Box 1 The entire history of China’s township healthcare centers

The main component of PHIs in rural China is township health centers (THCs). The entire history of China’s THCs is about how to balance the relationship between government and market in terms of financing (Fig. 1). At the stage of the People’s Republic of China funded (1958–1980), the government strongly supported and financed the THCs, and people’s health statue intensely promoted during this period [14]. At the stage of Economic Reform and Open Up (1981–2001), the government changed the financing policy and made the THCs into the market, which caused a massive loss of technical staff from THCs and resident’s healthcare utilization in THCs decreased [14–16]. After aware of the shrinking of THCs, the government began to increase the subsidy to THCs from 2002 and continue to increase it from 2009 [7]