Primary health care institutions should be the main force of China's medical and health service system and the cornerstone of the national health care system. During the COVID-19 pandemic, China's primary health care institutions played a critical role, but many deficiencies and weaknesses were also highlighted. Through systematic literature search and analysis, this article finds that China's primary health care institutions have some problems such as low demand for patient care, weak integration of the health system, weak service foundation, and insufficient emergency response capacity for public health emergencies. Accordingly, we put forward a strategy for the construction of primary health care institutions based on the "Three Forces Theory", which aims to improve the primary medical and health care service system, upgrade the capacity of primary medical and health care services, and better fulfill the strategic goal of "Healthy China 2030".