A number of sources I've found indicate that (see links below for sources): 1) China consumes about 50% of the total global antibiotic production (roughly half for agriculture and half for human use). 2) Per capita human consumption of antibiotics is on the order of 10 times greater in China compared to the US.

Some of these articles are several years old, and from sources I'd classify as more internal than foreign. It is likely that these figures would be conservative.

If this data is approximately correct, I think we could say that 1) China has an outsized effect on the problem of antibiotic resistance (even considering it's large population). 2) The US problem of antibiotic use is mostly an agricultural one (which deserves a lot of attention), and the Chinese overuse of antibiotics is not confined to either human or agricultural use.

I'm sure the chinese leadership is aware of the issue, and given their ability to make changes when something is very important (ie, air pollution during high profile events), the fact that little has been done is telling. It is likely that this simply isn't a high priority issue and thus we are unlikely to see any movement on it anytime soon.

http://china.org.cn/china/2015-07/14/content_36057168.htm http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-07/14/c_134411007.htm http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2103733,00...

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