In addition, China's State Council has established in recent years a coordinating mechanism to facilitate cross-ministry dialogues and cooperation in global health and foreign aid initiatives. Chinese scholars have noted that a State Council`G lobal Health Diplomatic Coordination Office'' (quanqiu weisheng waijiao xietiao bangongshi, hÃk¤OÃl¤), led by a senior official at vice-Premier level, is crucial to effectively coordinating and developing policies of health diplomacy [37] . In order to increase the capacity of China's health diplomats to deal with global health challenges, a training course, the first in a series, for Chinese officials, including officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Health, was held in August 2009 in the Institute for Global Health at Peking University [38] .