Chinese Hypertension League History 

With the approval of the Chinese Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Health, China joined the World Hypertension League (WHL) on May 12, 1989. The Chinese Hypertension League (CHL) was then officially established in Xiangfan city, Hubei province on October 6, 1989. The mission was the prevention and treatment of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases in China.

CHL was founded on the basis of the collaborative group of the Seventh National Five-Year Plan research project "Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly Trial" under the leadership of Professors Lisheng Liu and Lansheng Gong. At the inaugural meeting of CHL, the constitution was framed, and the Council was elected with Lisheng Liu from Beijing Fuwai Hospital as President and Lansheng Gong from Shanghai Ruijin Hospital as Vice-President.

In the past 30 years, the Council was re-elected 4 times with Lisheng Liu as President from 1989 to 2010 and Zhaosu Wu as president from Beijing Anzhen Hospital from 2010 to 2018. The current President is Jiguang Wang from Shanghai Ruijin Hospital, and Secretary General Yuqing Zhang from Beijing Fuwai Hospital since 2018.

CHL aims to serve the public by disseminating knowledge on the prevention and treatment of hypertension, to serve the patients by carrying on population prevention and treatment of hypertension, and to serve the physicians by organizing national and international scientific communications while promoting new technology and scientific research in China.

Organize and carry out a number of clinical studies

CHL organized and participated in various large scale national and international clinical research projects on hypertension and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases such as the Systolic Hypertension in China Trial (Syst-China), Chinese Cardiac Study-1 (CCS-1), Chinese Cardiac Study-2 (CCS-2), Post-stroke Anti-hypertensive Treatment Studies (PATS and PROGRESS), Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease Controlled Evaluation Study (ADVANCE), Chinese Acute Stroke Trial with Aspirin (CAST), Clinical Trial of Reviparin in AMI Treatment and Evaluation with Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin (CREATE), Hypertension in the Very Elderly Trial (I-IYVET), Telmisartan Alone and in Combination with Ramipril Global Endpoint Trial (ONTARGET), Perioperative Cardiac Event Trial (POISE), Anticoagulant Treatment in Peripheral Arterial disease (WAVE), Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE-3), Interventional Study on High-Normal Blood Pressure (CHINOM), the 9th National Five-Year Plan Project - Felodipine Event Reduction Study (FEVER), the 10th National Five-Year Plan Project - Chinese Hypertension Intervention Efficacy Study (CHIEF), and the National Community Standardized Management of Hypertension Project.

Organize experts to write China's first Chinese Hypertension Guideline

In 1999, CHL published the first Chinese Hypertension Guideline. This guidance document was then updated in 2005, 2010 and 2018, respectively. These guidelines have promoted the prevention and treatment of hypertension in China. To implement the Chinese guidelines, CHL has organized a series of four "Century Hypertension Tours in China”. More than 100 workshops and seminars have been held in various provinces over the whole country. These activities have publicized the guidelines as well as scientific research and improved knowledge and technology of hypertension control among 40,000 physicians.

Organize international exchanges and domestic academic conferences

Since 1999, more than twenty international symposia on hypertension and related diseases have been organized by CHL with more than 40,000 Chinese and foreign attendees. The Asian Pacific Congress of Hypertension was held in 2007. This congress promoted national and international scientific communications. CHL participated in the Art Competitions organized by WHL for four times and won awards each time. At the same time, a number of cooperative activities were organized with the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) and the European Society of Hypertension (ESH), such as ISH-CHL Summer School, ESH-CHL Summer School etc.

On September 20, 2018, the 27th International Society of Hypertension Scientific Conference (ISH 2018), sponsored by the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) and co-sponsored by Chinese Hypertension League (CHL), Asia Pacific Society of Hypertension (APSH), Beijing Hypertension Association and Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, was grandly opened in Beijing International Convention Center. The conference lasted four days. The 20th International Symposium on hypertension and related diseases, 2018 China Annual Conference on hypertension and the 14th Asia Pacific Academic Conference on hypertension (APSH) were also held at the same time. More than 2800 representatives from 87 countries attended the meeting.

Organize a number of public health education activities

CHL has launched a series of activities based on the themes of both the World Hypertension Day on 17 May every year and the China Hypertension Day on 8 October every year, and has compiled and distributed more than 200,000 booklets and other materials on the management of hypertension to tens of thousands of physicians and public. Since 2017, CHL organized the May Measurement Month project in China in collaboration with the International Society of Hypertension. Tens of thousands of volunteers measured blood pressure in a standardized manner in almost a million people.

CHL also provided support for continuous education of African doctors, sponsored by the World Hypertension Congress and the Council Meeting of WHL in Beijing. CHL has also actively participated in the World Health Organization (WHO) cardiovascular health research in developing countries and carried out community-based hypertension control, in an effort to explore the suitable mode of hypertension control in China.