China Medical University

China Medical University in Shenyang was founded in 1931 as the Military Medical School of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and was the first medical school established by the Chinese Communist Party. It has around 8,220 undergraduates and teaches in Chinese, English and Japanese. It is among the Chinese universities most heavily marketed to international medical applicants, and the material circulating about it needs care. One widely repeated claim holds that only four Chinese medical universities are recognised by the World Health Organization for English-medium teaching and that this is one of them. That claim is false: the WHO does not accredit medical schools and has not maintained a directory since 2007. The university itself is a serious institution with a long history and a five-year basic medical degree including practical training. It was among the first batch of Chinese medical schools authorised by the Ministry of Education to recruit international students, and reports more than 800 of them from almost 70 countries. The claims made on its behalf by agents are a separate matter. One naming point requires care. China Medical University in Shenyang is entirely unrelated to China Medical University in Taichung, Taiwan, which shares the English name exactly.