The Cochrane Collaboration (www.cochrane.org) is the world’s largest organisation dedicated to preparing, maintaining and promoting the accessibility of systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare interventions. It is an international organisation with participants in almost 100 countries. Since the year 2000, a periodic audit has been done to count the number of active members in the Cochrane Review Groups, subdivided by the country in which these people are based. At the beginning of 2006, there were almost 15 000 people involved, an increase from about 5 500 in 2000. The growth of activity in China has been particularly dramatic—from 15 in 2000 to 415 in 2006, making it the seventh largest contributor in the Collaboration. This increase has been especially large for authors of Cochrane reviews and protocols. In the year 2000, 8 people from China were listed as authors by the Cochrane Review Groups. At the beginning of 2006, this had risen to 370 people.