In China, publicity blitz confronts AIDS
New campaign waged after years of denial
BEIJING - The student with shaggy hair hanging low over his eyes, his head pulled turtlelike into a leather jacket, was plainly embarrassed by his ignorance.
Not until three months ago, when he got the results of his blood test, had the 22-year-old art student at a Beijing university heard the term "HIV." None of his friends knew how to use condoms or had any idea why they should.
"By the time they realized, it was too late," said the student, who asked not to be named.
Belatedly, China is trying to get out the word about the AIDS virus, and officials are doing it in the typically oversize way that befits the world's most populous nation, deploying an army of volunteers.
To mark World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, a banner of a giant, red ribbon was draped from the huge National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, renowned from the Summer Olympics. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao were photographed with their arms around HIV-positive people. The state media have been filled with photographs and editorials about combating the discrimination and isolation felt by AIDS victims.
"Time to recognize that AIDS is a disease, not a shame," declared the official New China News Agency recently.
The publicity blitz is surprising for an authoritarian government that has resorted to coverup and denial when it came to HIV and AIDS. Over the years, activists have been arrested and harassed for sharing information about AIDS. One of the best known, Hu Jia, has been in prison for almost a year on charges of "subverting state power."
The prevalence of ignorance about sexually transmitted diseases is staggering. A recent poll of 6,000 Chinese that included students, migrant workers, and blue- and white-collar workers found that 48 percent thought the AIDS virus was transmitted by mosquitoes.
Yet it is clear that AIDS awareness has grown here, with increasing resources devoted to the 700,000 or more Chinese who are HIV-positive.
Although China does not have the world's largest HIV/AIDS problem - the HIV infection rate is estimated at less than 0.1 percent - the virus has been spreading fast enough among some populations that the government became alarmed. Migrant workers are particularly susceptible because they come from rural areas with little sexual education and often patronize prostitutes during years of separation from their families. Last month the Chinese government released a short educational film starring actor Wang Baoqiang and a migrant worker who is HIV-positive.
HIV also is spreading fast among intravenous drug users in western China, particularly Yunnan Province bordering Burma, and in the Xinjiang region.
"It is very difficult to stop AIDS among drug users. The local governments don't want us working with this population because they consider them criminals," said Ju He, a Beijing-based AIDS activist.
At times when Ju's group has tried to distribute clean needles to prevent drug users from spreading the virus, local police have stationed themselves across the street to arrest anyone who shows up.
During a conference earlier this month in Beijing of nongovernmental organizations, activists described the Chinese government's handling of AIDS as "schizophrenic."
When AIDS emerged in the 1980s, Chinese Communist propaganda stigmatized it as a disease of capitalists and foreigners. 