When Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital procured its first high-end CT scanner from a Chinese company last year, some radiographers and doctors at the city’s most prestigious hospital were skeptical. Accustomed to the precision and reliability of established Western devices, they had doubts about what a Chinese machine could deliver.
The responsiveness of the supplier, Shanghai-based United Imaging Healthcare, quickly quieted any misgivings, said the hospital’s chief strategy officer, Chen Wei-Hsu.
The hospital more recently bought another United Imaging scanner, which performs full-body scans in five minutes versus 20 minutes for conventional PET/CT equipment. In a single imaging examination, it can accurately track small early-stage cancer lesions and hidden metastatic cancer cells throughout the body, enabling effective diagnoses and helping physicians make precision treatment plans.
The latest machine, housed at HKSH Medical Group’s Eastern Medical Center, became the first of its kind to come online in Hong Kong last month.
For decades, Hong Kong’s private hospitals have purchased their medical devices and equipment from the catalogues of top US, European, and Japanese companies like GE HealthCare, Siemens Healthineers, Philips and Olympus. But Chinese medical equipment makers are increasingly challenging established global brands, extending China’s push up the manufacturing value chain beyond sectors such as electric vehicles and robotics.
In 2025, after years of policy support to build up the sector, China’s exports of hospital diagnostic and treatment equipment reached USD 24.06 billion, up 8.1% on the year. Exports of surgical robots soared by 368.1%, according to the China Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Medicines & Health Products.
Hospital executives in Hong Kong said that Chinese manufacturers have won over customers not only with lower prices but also their quality, adaptability and responsiveness to customer needs.
Chen told Nikkei Asia that HKSH “did a lot of research” before buying the CT scanner. He said it was not decided by price, since in this case the difference between United Imaging’s high-end product and those from better-known Western companies was “negligible.”
Andy Chen, COO of Hong Kong Adventist Hospital, also spoke highly of Chinese medical tech.
“I know that not only us, but also other hospitals here are using Chinese-made patient monitoring systems,” he said. “They have clearly demonstrated good results, supported by strong evidence, cost-effectiveness and advanced technology, so we definitely adopt them.”
Adventist is also bringing in a Chinese-made surgical robotic system, another first in Hong Kong, according to Chen. “While cost is a factor, quality and performance are the primary drivers of our selection process,” he said. “We want to deliver the best available solutions.”
Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong, another well-regarded hospital in the city, inked a partnership with Shenzhen-based ultrasound device maker Mindray in January. The hospital’s CEO and regional CEO of IHH Healthcare North Asia, Kenneth Tsang, told Nikkei Asia that Mindray’s ultrasound machines are 20–30% cheaper than comparable Western brands. Another key consideration is that when a machine breaks, Chinese suppliers can provide replacement parts much more quickly than the weeks or even months it takes for Western counterparts to do so, he said.
Gleneagles, the international brand for Malaysia-headquartered IHH Healthcare, runs 190 medical facilities including 89 hospitals across ten countries. Three years ago, almost all of the ultrasound devices used at Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong were from European or US manufacturers, according to Tsang. Now Chinese brands account for half.
“We’re not saying we’re switching, but we’re diversifying,” Tsang said. The hospital is also increasing the promotion of Chinese cardiac stents from Shanghai-based supplier MicroPort. Previously, it relied on supplies from US companies such as Medtronic and Boston Scientific.
Chen at HKSH agreed that after-sales service from United Imaging was “very responsive,” with the company pushing out software updates in a matter of weeks. He explained that while the hardware of the computed tomography system HKSH bought “matches its Western counterparts,” modifications were needed to meet the hospital’s standards on the software front, such as image processing and reconstruction.
The growing adoption of Chinese medical equipment outside mainland China shows that Beijing’s efforts to foster the sector are paying off.
In the past few years, Chinese authorities have introduced policies to steer hospitals toward domestic equipment. Several local governments have gone further, mandating that homegrown brands be procured whenever they meet requirements, while imports face stricter government procurement reviews.
As of this year, domestically made products—some of which, at the high end, still rely heavily on imported components—also receive a 20% price advantage in government procurement. This means they can win a bid even when they are more expensive than imported options.
China has sought to change how public hospitals purchase equipment as well. In July, the government introduced new rules requiring public medical institutions to buy equipment through centralized procurement programs.
Alongside efforts to boost adoption of Chinese equipment, Beijing has worked to enhance the industry’s innovation and support its overseas expansion. At the national level, the drug and device regulator has prioritized fields such as medical robots, high-end imaging, artificial intelligence medical devices and novel biomaterials. Last year, it introduced 10 measures aimed at accelerating the arrival of new products on the market, supporting overseas growth and deepening coordination with international regulators, including the International Medical Device Regulators Forum and the Global Harmonization Working Party.
China’s export ambitions received an additional boost in May. The National Medical Products Administration implemented new rules for medical device exports, which experts say helped to align China with international practices and standardize procedures for issuing sales certificates.
Riding this policy tailwind, Chinese players are gaining market share.
Inside China, high-end products account for roughly a quarter of the medical device market. GE HealthCare, Philips, and Siemens Healthineers, known as the “GPS” trio, long controlled about 70% of the segment, particularly in CT scanners, MRI systems and large-scale X-ray equipment. They remain strong, but their dominance is beginning to slip.
According to the China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Research Development Association, the trio’s combined share of the Chinese high-end market fell from 67.1% in 2022 to 61.7% in 2025. Over the same period, United Imaging’s slice rose from 12.4% to 18.2%.
The chill is showing up in earnings reports. GE’s China revenue, which accounts for 11% of its total, fell 5% in 2025. Philips said that China’s share of total revenue slid from 7.8% in 2023 to 6.7% in 2025, despite a brief uptick in 2024. Siemens’ China sales, representing around 8% of its total, edged down 1% in fiscal year 2025.
At the same time, companies such as United Imaging and Mindray are making inroads abroad.
Founded in 2011, United Imaging, which counts a number of former Siemens staffers among its senior executives, generated RMB 1.77 billion (USD 264.6 million) in overseas revenue in the first half of this year, up more than 50%, year-on-year, and accounting for 25% of its total revenue. Asia Pacific contributed about 57% of its foreign sales, followed by North America at roughly 24%, according to company filings.
Mindray, which was established in Shenzhen in 1991, saw revenue jump during the pandemic on sales of patient-monitoring equipment and ventilators. While its domestic sales have declined of late, its overseas revenue reached RMB 9.47 billion (USD 1.4 billion) in the first half of 2026, exceeding 53% of total revenue for the first time as growth in Europe and Latin America topped 20%.
In a post-earnings call in August, Mindray executives suggested there is more room for growth. They said China accounts for less than 20% of the global medical device market, while the company’s average overseas market share is about 5%.
Chinese players face obstacles to their global ambitions, however.
Even in Hong Kong, where hospitals are increasingly embracing Chinese devices, the scope of adoption has been relatively narrow. HKSH’s Chen said the hospital has focused on diagnostic imaging equipment from the mainland.
“Then you have the therapeutic level. For example, China also makes their own linear accelerators and other radiotherapy devices, but we haven’t gotten to that stage yet,” he said. “It may come in the future.”
One scientist at United Imaging, who asked not to be named, conceded that Chinese equipment can still be a hard sell abroad. “Despite the fact that we have R&D centers even in various locations in the US, one of the biggest challenges for us is to convince overseas clients to have trust in Chinese products,” said the scientist.
“We are targeting the high-end market, but in the US, why would clients choose us over GE?” he added. “Their research and sales infrastructure is all there. We still have a long way to go.”
This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.
Note: RMB figures are converted to USD at rates of RMB 6.69 = USD 1 based on estimates as of October 23, 2026, unless otherwise stated. USD conversions are approximate and, where appropriate, rounded for ease of reference. They may not fully match prevailing exchange rates.