Introduction
In June 2026, the 18th Straits Forum · Health and Healthcare Sub-forum was held in Xiamen. At the thematic meeting on hydrogen-oxygen medicine development, the world's first group standard, General Specification for Clinical Application of Hydrogen-Oxygen Mixed Gas Inhalation Therapy (T/CRHA316—2026), was officially released [1]. This group standard was led by the National Center for Respiratory Diseases and jointly drafted with numerous top tertiary Grade-A hospitals and authoritative research institutions nationwide, filling an industry gap.
This sub-forum was co-hosted by the Cross-Straits Medicine and Health Exchange Association and the Xiamen Municipal Health Commission, under the theme “Empowering through Sci-Tech Innovation and Digital Intelligence, Joining Hands to Promote Health.” It featured 12 thematic meetings covering hydrogen-oxygen medicine development, smart healthcare and AI-empowered patient services, integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine, and the growth and development of young physicians. More than 1,200 people from both sides of the Strait and from Hong Kong and Macao attended, including more than 320 participants from 22 Taiwanese medical societies and institutions [2]. This was the 8th consecutive Health and Healthcare Sub-forum held since 2017.
The thematic meeting on hydrogen-oxygen medicine development attracted considerable attention. The release of T/CRHA316—2026, General Specification for Clinical Application of Hydrogen-Oxygen Mixed Gas Inhalation Therapy, marks a leap in cross-Strait and Hong Kong-Macao cooperation in hydrogen-oxygen medicine from “scattered, experience-based academic exchange” to “a new stage of standardization, normalization, and long-term mechanism” [1].
In his keynote speech, Professor Zhong Nanshan explicitly pointed out that hydrogen-oxygen medicine is an original, fully independently controllable, globally leading frontier interdisciplinary medical technology from China, and is a highly representative achievement of independent innovation in the biopharmaceutical and gas medicine fields. He also emphasized that for hydrogen-oxygen medicine to achieve long-term healthy development, it must adhere to the core of evidence-based medicine and uphold the principles of norms first and standards-led development [1].
The assessment of Chen Yumin, President of the Taiwan Society of Thoracic and Critical Care Medicine and Secretary-General of the Asia-Pacific Respiratory Society, was even more direct: “In the field of hydrogen-oxygen medicine, the mainland has the most and most complete data. Taiwan has only just started and still has much to learn from the mainland.” His outlook was—“We hope that through in-depth cooperation, the world will see the data of Chinese-speaking communities” [1].
Behind this group standard stands one company and one person.
Shanghai Asclepius Meditec, the certified enterprise. LIN, HSIN-YUNG, Founder and Chairman of Asclepius Meditec, is from Taiwan.
Starting in 1977, LIN, HSIN-YUNG established industrial ventures in Taiwan, Malaysia, Mexico, Shanghai, Nantong, Dalian, and other places. In 2008, due to overwork, he was diagnosed with two cancers: nasopharyngeal cancer and gastric cancer. During his journey to Japan for treatment and medical consultations, he encountered hydrogen molecular therapy; after personally experiencing the value of hydrogen molecules to human health, he resolved to develop China's own hydrogen-oxygen medical equipment [3][4].
In December 2011, the Asclepius Meditec project was initiated in Shanghai, with the original intention of “using water to grace beautiful life” [5]. Starting in 2014, clinical research was launched under the guidance of Professor Zhong Nanshan [6].
On February 2, 2020, the Asclepius Meditec hydrogen-oxygen nebulizer received NMPA approval for a Class III medical device registration certificate—the world's first Class III certificate for a hydrogen-oxygen inhalation device (NMPA National Medical Device Registration no. 20203080066). In December 2021, the registration scope was expanded to home use [5].
In June 2026, the same company became one of the three co-leading units of the T/CRHA316—2026 group standard—standing alongside the National Center for Respiratory Diseases and Peking Union Medical College Hospital [1].
A Taiwanese, because of a serious illness, chose the institutional soil of the mainland. Seventeen years later, the company he founded secured two global “firsts”—the first certificate and the first standard. This is not a story of individual heroism; it is the story of an institutional path of cross-Strait integration being successfully blazed.
This was no accident. As an entirely new medical category, hydrogen-oxygen medicine had no ready-made review framework to apply. The NMPA built from scratch a classification determination and review system for Asclepius Meditec: more than 400 registration tests covering biocompatibility, toxicology, safety, and electromagnetic compatibility, and full-chain validation from cell experiments to animal experiments to single-center clinical to multicenter clinical studies [5]. The review cycle spanned multiple rounds and took more than a decade.
What supports this institutional patience are three things: the scale of a 1.4-billion-population clinical validation pool, the sovereign ability to independently define review standards for new categories, and the top-tier tertiary Grade-A academic network represented by the National Center for Respiratory Diseases. All three are indispensable.
When proposing cross-Strait cooperation, Chen Yumin, President of the Taiwan Society of Thoracic and Critical Care Medicine, said precisely this: constrained by the scale of its patient pool, Taiwan cannot independently complete clinical validation of such magnitude—“the mainland has the most and most complete data; Taiwan has only just started” [1].
Zheng Zhe, Vice Minister of the National Health Commission, proposed at the opening ceremony three dimensions of cross-Strait medical and health cooperation: “casting unity through integration, jointly shouldering the mission of national rejuvenation; guiding the future through innovation, jointly building a highland for healthy development; and gathering strength through youth, providing strong support for learning, exchange, employment, and entrepreneurship among young physicians and medical students on both sides” [2]. T/CRHA316—2026 happens to be the simultaneous implementation of these three statements—using the power of integration to produce a global standard, using independently original technology to achieve global leadership, and using clinical and standard data to attract recognition and alignment from Taiwanese peers.
The Straits Forum · Health and Healthcare Sub-forum has been held for eight editions. The theme of the first seven was “exchange”—mutual visits, mutual learning, and shared experience. A qualitative change appeared in the eighth edition: the two sides no longer merely sat together introducing what each had done; they jointly produced a technical specification recognized by the industry. This is the deeper definition of integration.
The significance of T/CRHA316—2026 lies not in the technical document itself, but in proving a proposition: in the field of cross-Strait medical and health cooperation, “mainland institutional soil + Taiwanese talent resources + joint clinical validation” can blaze a zero-to-one global first.
This path is not exclusive to hydrogen-oxygen medicine. As Wang Liji, President of the Cross-Straits Medicine and Health Exchange Association, pointed out at the forum, the next step will be to promote in-depth cross-Strait cooperation in fields such as AI-empowered precision medicine, general practice, and mental health [1]. The path is replicable, but three conditions are required: independent academic output capability, an institutionalized standards platform, and people and institutions willing to invest more than a decade of deep effort.
LIN, HSIN-YUNG and Asclepius Meditec took 17 years. He is not an isolated case; he is a verifiable sample—proving that within the mainland's institutional framework, a Taiwanese entrepreneur can complete the closed loop from “personal idea to global standard.” In the next 17 years, there will be another field.
Sources
[1] Health News, “Promoting Cross-Strait Health and Healthcare Exchange and Cooperation to New Heights,” June 18, 2026.
[2] China News Service, “(Focus on the Straits Forum) The 18th Straits Forum – Health and Healthcare Sub-forum Held in Xiamen,” June 14, 2026.
[3] China.com, “Asclepius Meditec Hydrogen-Oxygen Nebulizer: Asclepius Meditec Founder Awarded the 2023 Pioneer Figure Award of China's Rehabilitation and Elderly Care Industry,” October 30, 2023.
[4] Yicai “Chun Xiang Ren Sheng” program (hosted by Ma Hongman, narrated by LIN, HSIN-YUNG), April 23, 2023.
[5] Asclepius Meditec official website (ascleway.org), company profile.
[6] QQ News, “Asclepius Meditec Hydrogen-Oxygen Nebulizer: Evidence-Based Foundation, Deeply Cultivating the Clinical Value of Hydrogen-Oxygen Medicine,” May 22, 2026.
