Traditional Chinese medicine should play an important role in rural health, according to many of the nation's top political advisers.

"Chinese have relied on TCM for thousands of years, while Western medicine was only introduced into the country several hundred years ago," said Zhu Qingsheng, a former vice minister of health and now a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which is sitting in Beijing.

"TCM should and can play a bigger role in rural areas."

Zhu's remarks won the approval of a number of CPPCC members, both from the medical sector and other circles.

"I believe TCM is a good tool in building a system of primary health care services for both urban and rural residents," said CPPCC member Ha Xiaoxian, who is also an expert from the Harbin Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Center.

TCM was widely used in the rural health system after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and helped to almost double the country's average life expectancy from 35 years in 1949 to 68 years in 1978.

However, it is losing out to Western medicine in popularity, according to an online survey last year.

A countrywide debate was sparked over the survival of TCM last year after an online proposal by Zhang Gongyao, a professor with Central South University, called for the removal of TCM practices from the national health service.

It attracted both support and outrage from thousands of netizens. China's Ministry of Health chimed in with: "TCM is an inseparable and important component of China's health sector."

In the government work report delivered on March 5 at the opening of the National People's Congress, Premier Wen Jiabao said the state would strongly support the development of TCM and the folk medicine of ethnic minorities.

But China is in dire need of experienced TCM doctors. There are 270,000 in the country, and only 30,000 of them practice TCM exclusively. Most are aged over 50, according to CPPCC member Si Fuchun, an expert from Henan College of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Political advisers from the health sector have submitted suggestions, calling on the government to:

Improve the training of TCM practitioners.

Alter certification procedures to enable more practitioners to get licenses.

Subsidize those who work in rural areas.