Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday met with Tingika Elikana, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration of the Cook Islands, with the two sides pledging to deepen bilateral relations.
The meeting came on the sidelines of the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting which opened in Xiamen City of east China's Fujian Province on the same day.
Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, noted that the two sides should give full play to the complementary advantages between both countries, and strengthen cooperation in key areas such as marine resources development and protection, so as to better support the Cook Islands in boosting its economy and improving people's livelihood.
China is willing to work with the Cook Islands to build a fair and rational global climate governance system for win-win results, said Wang.
Elikana noted that the Cook Islands has always regarded China as an important partner, and thanked China for its strong, long-term support and assistance in the development of the Cook Islands.
The Cook Islands unswervingly adheres to the one-China principle and is willing to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with China across various fields so as to promote the in-depth development of bilateral relations, said Elikana.
Chinese foreign minister meets Cook Islands counterpart in Xiamen
The Sanya branch of the Peking University (PKU) Hospital of Stomatology based in the tourist resort city of Sanya in south China's tropical Hainan Province -- the country's first national-level regional dental specialty center -- officially opened on Saturday, providing local residents and tourists with access to top-tier dental care without leaving Hainan.
As a key city in the Hainan Free Trade Port and a hub for both tourism and wellness, Sanya has seen rising demand for oral healthcare. Local resources, however, have long been strained.
The newly launched hospital aims to ease the situation. Both its management and medical teams come directly from the main campus of the PKU Hospita of Stomatology in Beijing, ensuring seamless integration and unified standards across diagnoses, treatment, and service quality. The facility comprises of nine specialized buildings, including an emergency outpatient complex and an international medical services building, covering all sub-specialties in dental medicine.
"Since the official start of Hainan Free Trade Port's island-wide special customs operations [on December 18, 2025], the very first zero-tariff items entering the region were advanced dental equipment for our hospital. This enables a wide range of patients in the Hainan region to access the world's latest dental treatment equipment and technology more quickly," said Deng Xuliang, president of the PKU Hospital of Stomatology.
Looking ahead, the main campus of the PKU Hospital of Stomatology will collaborate with medical universities in Hainan to jointly train more specialized professionals for grassroots-level healthcare institutions across the region. Through technical mentorship and integrated training programs, the initiative aims to leverage the policy advantages of the free trade port to build a high-level, comprehensive platform that integrates medical services, education, research, public health, and healthcare management, with particular attention on international patient services and comfort-focused treatment.
"The operation of medical care plus health and wellness programs and of medical care plus tourism projects has jointly contributed to the formation of an internationalized medical care platform in Sanya, which presents a major opportunity for both Sanya and the rest of Hainan, especially as the free trade port enters full operation, making more duty-free medicines and medical devices available locally," said Hu Yulei, director of the Sanya Municipal Health Commission.
Hainan's Sanya opens first national dental specialty center
