As China and the U.S. continue to shape two of the world’s most dynamic aesthetic medicine markets, collaboration between their clinicians is creating opportunities to share knowledge, advance research and improve patient care
Two world powers known for their differences have one thing in common: Soaring medical aesthetics industries.
The U.S. aesthetic medicine market, valued at $49.28 billion in 2025, is anticipated to grow to about $167.13 billion by 2035 (at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 13% from 2026 to 2035), according to market research by Nova One Advisor.1 While the U.S. leads the global aesthetic medicine market, experts agree that China’s industry is evolving and growing rapidly.
China’s medical aesthetics industry is becoming established as a leading global market segment ‘at the confluence of healthcare, beauty, and technology,’ according to a report by the global advisory firm KPMG.2 The KPMG report, entitled Redefining Beauty: Navigating China’s Medical Aesthetics Upheaval, pointed to China’s estimated 22.6% CAGR between 2023 and 2030, driven by rising disposable income, an ageing population, demand from younger consumers, social media influence, artificial intelligence (AI), and a boom in ‘light medical aesthetics.’
Min Yao, MD, PhD, a professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine (SJUSM) and the academic leader of the photoelectricity specialty in plastic surgery at the Ninth People’s Hospital of SJUSM, told PRIME that aesthetic medicine in China is a dynamic, rapidly evolving field.
‘It is not only about cosmetic enhancement. Increasingly, it is about medical safety, evidence-based practice, patient education, and long-term wellness,’ she said. ‘China has seen rapid adoption of technologies aimed at skin quality improvement (e.g., texture, pores, pigmentation, laxity) and minimally invasive rejuvenation, while academic centres are placing increasing attention on methodological rigour, including prospective registries, validated scales, and longer follow-up.’
China has seen rapid adoption of technologies aimed at skin quality improvement (e.g., texture, pores, pigmentation, laxity) and minimally invasive rejuvenation, while academic centres are placing increasing attention on methodological rigour, including prospective registries, validated scales, and longer follow-up.
Min Yao, MD, PhD
Bridge building
Cosmetic surgery did not exist in China until recently, said Randy Miller, MD, a cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgeon practising in Miami, Florida.
‘It’s a communist country. There’s no private healthcare, and plastic surgery hasn’t been part of the culture,’ Dr Miller said.
Dr Miller started on a journey to work alongside Chinese plastic surgeons in 2005, when he met Jianxing Song, MD, PhD. The European-trained surgeon asked Dr Miller to assist with Dr Song’s request to become a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
It was tricky, as there is no medical equivalence to Western medical education in China.
‘There’s no board certification. There’s no defined residency core criteria curriculum. There are no in-service exams. So, while many are highly qualified, we don’t have any way to particularly vet them,’ Dr Miller told PRIME.
‘China’s bewildering medical education pathways,’ published in The Lancet,3 described China’s medical education system as one of the world’s most complex and perplexing. While medical graduates in Europe and North America hold the same degree and possess a uniform level of clinical proficiency, China has multiple distinct medical education pathways that can last from 3 to 8 years.
‘As a result, medical students in China can receive an entry-level medical degree at varying levels of graduation, allowing them to take the Chinese Medical Licensing Examination and become licensed practitioners,’ according to the paper.
Dr Miller vouched for Dr Song, who became an ASPS member. This led to an important friendship and long, consistent collaboration. Dr Miller is often invited to China to share surgical techniques. Drs Miller and Song have also worked together on joint meetings of the Chinese Society of Plastic Surgeons (CSPS) and the ASPS. Dr Miller is an organiser for the next joint meeting in Shanghai, China, in November 2026. He’ll be presenting plastic surgery techniques — from stem cells and regenerative medicine to surgical approaches.
Surgical demand remains meaningful, but many patients—especially first-time aesthetic patients—prefer procedures with lower perceived risk and downtime, which continues to fuel growth in minimally invasive modalities.
Min Yao, MD, PhD
Overcoming cultural norms
Chinese surgeons tend to be highly skilled due to giant surgical volume and tremendous manual dexterity, aided in part by ‘chopsticks and the Chinese alphabet,’ according to Dr Miller.
Because it has always been a forbidden country with closed policies, China lacks access to Western technological innovations available to aesthetic clinicians in the U.S. and throughout modern Asia.
‘China has basically blocked out Western technology,’ Dr Miller said. ‘If you go to South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, or Singapore, you see technology that you would commonly see in an ICU at Johns Hopkins,’ Dr Miller said. ‘They still have glass IV bottles. The rooms were about 90 degrees, and surgeons were sweating because they didn’t have technology as we do in the U.S. to keep patients warm during surgery.’
That’s changing. China is shepherding industry growth with supportive policies that encourage innovation, according to the KPMG report, which predicts strong growth in laser and energy-based device technologies.
Today, Dr Miller said China is a ‘communist-capitalist country.’
‘Chinese entrepreneurs are opening up these magnificent plastic surgery hospitals,’ Dr Miller said. ‘I have worked at many of these hospitals, and they have advertised me on billboards and television. They use social media heavily. They use publicists. China has really grown its aesthetic industry.’
Medical aesthetic industry comparisons between China and the U.S.
Like the U.S., China is seeing strong interest in minimally invasive and non-invasive treatments, regenerative concepts, skin rejuvenation, combination therapies, and overall wellness. Patients are interested not only in looking younger, but also in looking healthier, less tired, and more natural, explained Dr Yao, who has published 162 papers, including 72 in English, and holds 16 patents.
The shift from having a single procedure to skin-quality and maintenance paradigms is notable, Dr Yao said.
‘In China, this trend is frequently expressed through a strong preference for brighter, more even skin tone (“brightening/whitening”), making pigment control and tone uniformity central themes in routine practice,’ she said.
Combination therapy and protocols commonly integrate energy-based devices with injectables and topical/biologic adjuncts, aiming for synergistic effects while optimising downtime and safety, according to Dr Yao.
And while regenerative and biostimulatory concepts are gaining traction, there is heightened demand for high-quality evidence, she shared.
Weight management and metabolic health discussions (including GLP-1s) are on the rise, particularly in the context of body contouring and holistic appearance management. Clinical integration, however, often depends on local prescribing pathways, multidisciplinary collaboration, and patient selection frameworks, Dr Yao said.
Like clinicians and researchers in the U.S., those in China are paying more attention to adverse-event prevention—especially post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH) following energy-based device treatments.
Dr Yao shared that aesthetic medicine demand in China is particularly strong for:
Non-invasive and minimally invasive rejuvenation with energy-based devices (laser/light, radiofrequency [RF], ultrasound), skin tightening, and treatments targeting texture and pores.
Injectables, including neuromodulators and hyaluronic acid fillers, remain common, alongside growing interest in approaches framed as collagen stimulation or tissue quality enhancement.
Pigment and photoageing management is in demand, often with laser-based strategies and careful patient counselling regarding expectations, recurrence risk, and post-treatment care.
‘Surgical demand remains meaningful, but many patients—especially first-time aesthetic patients—prefer procedures with lower perceived risk and downtime, which continues to fuel growth in minimally invasive modalities,’ Dr Yao said.
If we become friends through medicine, we will be able to take better care of our patients and make a better future for all of our children.
Randy Miller, MD
AI in aesthetic medicine in China
Like in the U.S., AI’s influence is increasing across aesthetic medicine workflows. This includes with imaging and assessment standardisation.
Chinese clinicians are also harnessing AI for decision support and risk stratification, patient communication, education, and operational efficiency. They, too, have concerns about responsible AI implementation, recognising the need for external validation, careful management of bias and generalisability, and strong privacy and data governance, according to Dr Yao.
That’s especially important in aesthetic medicine, which involves highly sensitive data, she said.
The common ground between these countries is evident at professional meetings, including those hosted by ASPS and Informa Aesthetic, such as AMWC China, which took place in Chengdu from October 16th to 18th, 2026.
Attendees share priorities in patient safety, natural-looking outcomes, and the growing role of combination therapy and longitudinal care, Dr Yao said.
Differences often arise from population-specific clinical needs, including increased emphasis on pigmentary conditions and ‘skin quality’ in many Asian cohorts. Other differences include practice environments, regulatory pathways, and variations in treatment standardisation across settings.
International meetings are particularly valuable because they allow benchmarking of protocols and endpoints, and they accelerate convergence toward best practices grounded in data, according to Dr Yao, who pointed to the recurring discussion on adverse events after energy-based device treatment — especially laser-associated PIH, which may vary across skin phototypes and peri-procedural practices, underscoring the value of cross-population evidence and protocol sharing.
Collaboration: ‘A beautiful thing’
Collaboration between the countries has happened regardless of other world events. The relationship has survived and thrived, resulting in ‘a special and beautiful thing,’ according to Dr Miller.
Collaboration improves scientific validity and patient outcomes. According to Dr Yao, cross-country exchanges:
- promote harmonised safety standards and complication management frameworks
- enable multi-ethnic validation of devices, injectables, and algorithms (critical for generalisability)
- facilitate consensus on outcome measures and clinically meaningful endpoints
- encourage higher-quality, reproducible evidence through shared methodology and peer learning.
‘Given global patient mobility and the international nature of aesthetic innovation, this collaboration is increasingly essential,’ said Dr Yao, whose clinical and research interests include pigmentary disorders, scar management, wound repair/regeneration, and anti-ageing interventions.
Future opportunities
Dr Yao suggested promising opportunities for future collaborations between China and the U.S. include multicentre training and the external validation of AI models.
‘U.S.–China collaboration could enable larger, more diverse datasets for training and, critically, rigorous external validation across different skin phototypes, imaging environments, and clinical workflows. This would support more generalisable performance, better calibration, and improved fairness. Shared governance on privacy, de-identification, and reporting standards (e.g., transparent model documentation and failure mode analysis) would be essential,’ she said.
Another opportunity is for protocol and parameter harmonisation for the same device across different populations. Even with identical platforms (e.g., specific laser/RF/ultrasound systems), optimal settings and treatment modes may differ by baseline pigmentation, phototype-related risk (such as PIH), and patient-defined aesthetic goals, Dr Yao said.
‘Collaborative studies could compare parameter ranges, pulse structures/modes, treatment intervals, and peri-/post-procedural care, to generate evidence-based guidance,’ she added.
There are no signs that the collaborations between China and the U.S. in medical aesthetics are slowing, and that’s important. When surgeons do surgery together and are doctors together, they don’t focus on politics or the world stage.
‘We talk about how to take the best care of our patients, and we trust each other,’ Dr Miller said.
The aesthetic medicine bond between the countries endured even during the pandemic, when Dr Miller recalls having biweekly calls with ASPS members and Dr Song for several years without fail.
Some 20 years ago, Dr Miller thought he would be doing the majority of teaching as an American going into the People’s Republic of China. Instead, he found that medicine is a two-way exchange of information.
‘If we become friends through medicine, we will be able to take better care of our patients and make a better future for all of our children,’ he said.
Dr Miller refers to it as ‘bridges of medical friendship.’
Written by Lisette Hilton, contributing editor
References:
- Advisor NO. U.S. Aesthetic Medicine Market Size to Exceed USD 167.13 Bn by 2035 [Internet]. Novaoneadvisor.com. Nova One Advisor; 2026 Feb [cited 2026 Aug 13]. Available from: https://www.novaoneadvisor.com/report/us-aesthetic-medicine-market
- KPMG [Internet]. Redefining Beauty: Navigating China’s Medical Aesthetics Upheaval. KPMG. 2025 [cited 2026 Aug 13]. Available from: https://kpmg.com/cn/en/insights/2025/11/china-medical-aesthetics-industry.html
- Shan D. China’s bewildering medical education pathways. The Lancet. 2023 Mar 1;401(10381):999–1000
