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Chinese hospitals are struggling to accommodate the rising numbers of patients

China has approximately 20% of the world's population, but it has 22% of new cancer cases and 27% of the world's cancer deaths.

Cancer is now the leading cause of death in China but the health ministry seems ill-equipped to deal with the problem.

There are no obvious national campaigns to educate citizens on the avoidable causes of cancer, like smoking.

The country's National Cancer Centre, which was supposed to open in 2012, doesn't even have a website.

Reliable cancer statistics are also hard to find.

In 2008, the Chinese Academy of Medical Science launched the China Cancer Registration Project, with 219 registration spots across China documenting cancer data. However, it has yielded little new information.

The project's last report was released in 2013, using data from 2010. To date, China lacks a single database tracking national cancer rates.

Cancer screening programs are virtually non-existent. The country's fragile healthcare system also means that many aren't diagnosed until it is too late.

Liver cancer is a particular problem among Chinese men, many of whom carry the hepatitis B virus.

Around 130 million people in China are believed to be carrying the hepatitis B virus and 30 million have developed a chronic hepatitis B virus.

This is a serious problem because, without regular health checks, the virus can easily morph into liver cancer. China now accounts for half of the world's cases of the disease.

In a single morning, one of the hospital's most respected doctors, Song Jing, meets 10 new patients. All of them are found to have late stage liver cancer.

When asked if it is stressful telling so many people a day that they have less than a year to live, Dr Song nodded.

"Yes, it is. For terminal patients, there's little we can do," he said.

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Yes, this is sad. Science is a fleeting thing and very few people who worship the contemporary system, want to hear the message that we are promoting. It would greatly impact revenue and that is what commands most attention. It’s all about wealth for the few instead of health for the many.

This BBC News report[1] is especially incredible because our study, The China Project, was awarded first prize IN CHINA by the Chinese government among 111 entries for the 20-year period of 1978-1997 as the most important study in preventive medicine in China for that period.

Moreover, our 2005 book The China Study was read by the Minister of Health himself just before becoming minister in 2007 and he was responsible for my trip to give lectures in China that same year. I also was on national TV in China three times, the last said to have caused a 20% drop in dairy futures in the Shanghai market upon my comment on dairy.

Meanwhile, osteoporosis is now rising rapidly and costing the government almost $10 billion to treat—here in this BBC report, it seems that breast cancer is rising as well, both of which I forewarned my Chinese audiences about in 2007.

I saw firsthand the emergence of the dairy industry in China and now we see the consequences. Can we ever learn?