This a brief history about our work in China, written by David Powell.To learn more about how you can become a part of this history, contact us.

Some faculty members have asked us about our experiences in China, so we will try to provide a brief history of our journey there. In 1976 we had a burning desire todo some work in China. It was obviously early in the normalization process with the west. We attended meetings of the US-China Friendship Association and many other organizations, writing regularly to the Ministry of Health in China to see if we could visit their treatment facilities for addicted patients. The standard response was, "We do not have any alcoholics or drug abusers to show you."

After three years of writing, in 1979 I was invited by Pan Am to go to Hong Kong to see if I'd have any success getting into China from there. The next day after arrival in Hong Kong, I had a visa and went into China (across the wooden "no-man's land bridge" between Hong Kong and China, with bags in hand). I spent four days in what was then called Canton, pled my case with the authorities and left for home. Three months later we got a letter from China International Travel Service with 25 visas. We gathered the first group of alcohol and drug abuse experts from four countries (US, Canada, Sweden and Australia) to lecture for a month in China (November-December, 1979). The group included people such as Frank Seixas (medical director of NCA), Ernest Steed (executive director of ICAA), Ernie Noble (director of NIAAA), Mark Keller (Rutgers Center for Alcohol Studies), Maureen Carroll (National Center for Alcohol Education), John and Carol Wolfe (NIAAA), Robert Heath, the first speaker of Sweden's Parliament, David Archibald (Canada), etc.

For a month we went into hospitals, met with the Chinese medical and psychiatric communities, gave lectures, and poured through medical records, searching for cases of addicted patients. We visited facilities in Changsha (Hunan Province), Shanghai, Beijing, and Guanzhou (Canton). We found no records of anyone who was being tried for addiction or any other diagnosis that might have related to addiction.

For several years afterwards I returned to China to give lectures and meet with the psychiatric community. Regular exchanges of mail and research studies occurred.

Fast forward. In 2000 I was in Beijing and met with the godmother of alcoholism in China, Professor Shen Yucan. In her 80s by then, she recalled our prior meetings in the 1970s and 80s and said, "Before I retire, I want to start AA here. I have doctors to train but no money to do so. Can you help?"

Upon return to the U.S., we were able to get funds from the AA groups in San Francisco, and four doctors from China attended the 65th AA convention in June-July 2000 in Minneapolis. They went back to China and began AA in Mandarin on July 25th, 2000. Since then meetings have steadily grown throughout the country and are now available in 5-6 cities, with meetings daily in English and Mandarin in Beijing. An Intergroup has been formed. The steps and traditions were translated into simplified Chinese. Although AA groups existed for years in China for ex-pats in English and a Korean-led group in a northern province close to the Korean border, this was a first for meetings to be held in Mandarin.

I continued to return to China in 2001-2 as I affectionately say, "to see how the 'baby' was doing." A significant break-through happened in 2001 when the quiet, ex-pat, English-speaking group members agreed to take the risk and begin doing step work with the floundering Chinese group, as they had few members with much sobriety and no sponsors with any history of recovery.

In 2002 Dr. Yu Xin, the head of the Institute of Mental Health, Beijing Medical University (BMU), Beijing, asked me when visiting him in February, if we could "spread the word about 12 step programs through a training institute that fall hosted by BMU. I, of course, said, "sure," without any sense of how we could recruit a faculty and how it would be supported financially. Within weeks we'd gathered a world-class faculty of 25 international leaders in the field, including George Valliant, Tom Babor, David Smith, John Brick, Gail Milgram. The New England Institute of Addiction Studies (NEIAS) agreed to send Denise Adams to China to assist with logistics. The World Health Organization agreed to pay the travel and per diem expenses for 200 Chinese participants. The General Service Offices of AA, Al-Anon, and NA sent their executive directors and/or international staff. The China Symposium on Substance Abuse was a great success. For a week, lectures, grand rounds, and hospital visits were offered to 200 medical personnel from throughout China. Private donors graciously supported the travel expenses of many of the faculty.

The efforts continued in 2003 with frequent visits to China. In 2004 Barbara and I assisted in the management of the Asia-Pacific Institute on Addictions, held in Singapore with over 400 delegates from 23 nations. Several key people from China attended and lectured at APIA. In 2005 the Chinese flag came down the aisle for the first time at the 70th AA Convention in Toronto, a grand event especially for the delegation of 15 men and women in recovery who attended the Convention from China.

In 2006, I provided six weeks of training to 150 recovering people and medical personnel in Beijing and Shanghai, completing half of the hours needed for credentialing as addiction professionals. The Institutes of Mental Health in Beijing and Shanghai agreed to establish the China Association of Addiction Professionals and to complete the second half of the training in 2007.  Dr. Zhang Qiuling from BMU came to the U.S. from August 2006 to January 2007 to study children's programming and returned to China to begin to establish the first program for children of alcoholic and drug abuse parents. The Galen Davis Children's Program was initiated with Jerry Moe March 23-30, 2007 at BMU Hospital. Several research projects began this year, working with the China Association of Addiction Professionals, Beijing Medical University, the China Center for Disease Control, the (China) National Institute on Drug Dependence, and the U.S.-based Pacific Institute on Research and Evaluation.

Also, in 2007 forty faculty members from several nations provided clinical training in Beijing, Shanghai, and Kunming to over 300 professionals over a five week period. The participants will be the first credentialed addiction professionals in China with the establishment of the China Association of Addiction Professionals. In addition, several recovering persons have been utilized by treatment centers in Beijing to assist with patients, and to provide psychoeducation to patients concerning the 12 Steps.

In 2008 training was provided in Changsha, Hunan Province and Beijing at Beijing Medical University. Over 180 people attended training, with several completing the required 300 hours for credentialing as substance abuse specialists. Additional training was also provided at two other hospitals in Beijing, and ICHC is in the process of establishing a counselor certification process for China. ICHC is seeking to affiliate with an international certification organization to ensure conformity of standards and reciprocity with other nations. In 2008 David Powell appeared on CCTV for an interview concerning the development of 12 Step Programs in China.

The International Center for Addiction Studies based in Beijing, China, has been established and plans for training in 2009 have begun. Additionally, March will be Recovery Month in China with people from Asia and the western countries telling their stories and demonstrating that recovery can work.

So, that is a brief history of this pro bono, 30-year-long journey in China. You are now part of this history. Welcome!