To strengthen rural health services, the Chinese government has launched a series of policies to promote health workforce development. This study aims to understand the current status of village doctors and to explore the factors associated with village doctors’ job satisfaction in western China. It also attempts to provide references for further building capacities of village doctors and promoting the development of rural health service policy. A multistage stratified sampling method was used to obtain data from a cross-sectional survey on village doctors across 2 provinces of western China during 2012 to 2013. Quantitative data were collected from village doctors face-to-face, through a self-administered questionnaire. Among the 370 respondents, 225 (60.8%) aged 25 to 44 years, and 268 (72.4%) were covered by health insurance. Their income and working time calculated by workloads were higher than their self-report results. Being healthy, working fewer years, and having government funding and facilities were the positive factors toward their job satisfaction. Village doctors working with government-funded village clinics or facilities were more likely to feel satisfied. Problems identified previously such as low income and lack of insurance, heavy workload and aging were not detected in our study. Instead, village doctors were better-paid and better-covered by social insurance than other local rural residents, with increased job satisfaction. Government policies should pay more attention to improving the quality of rural health services and the income and security system of village doctors, to maintain and increase their job satisfaction and work enthusiasm. Further experimental study could evaluate effects of government input to improve rural health human resources and system development.

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The present paper expands on the understanding of the competition between China and Mexico in US markets. Using the OECD International Trade by Commodity Statistics covering the period 2002-2012, we undertake both relative-market-share analysis and constant-market-share analysis. Through comparison of market share changes at both macro and micro levels, we find that on the one hand China 's total negative impact on Mexican manufactured exports has been greatly reduced since 2007; on the other hand, China is increasingly aligned with Mexico in terms of its competitive position over the US market, consolidating its competitiveness in high and medium-to-high technology products and gaining market share in the US market, mainly at the expense of the most advanced economies. This changing pattern suggests the intensification of competition between Mexicoand China, but also a potential for cooperation, with the enhancement of bilateral intraindustry trade as a result of different technology choices and specialization paths.

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