Assessing HIV/AIDS Initiatives in China - Center for Strategic and ...

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Greater responsibility for carrying out HIV prevention, treatment, and care will fall to
county-level governments. The regulations suggest grassroots organizations and citizen
groups should also cooperate with government authorities to help combat the disease.
According to the regulations, work units cannot discriminate against people living with
HIV/AIDS, and the rights to marriage, employment, medical care, and education are to
be protected. Full implementation and enforcement of the regulations will need to be
followed, but they mark a step in the right direction. 12
Importantly, since 2003, China has been more open to the assistance of international
nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and numerous governments—such as
the Global Fund, multinational corporations, international foundations, the governments
of Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union, individual
European governments, and others—that have become increasingly active in addressing
HIV/AIDS in China. According to Chinese vice minister of health Wang Longde in late
2005, international cooperation programs to combat HIV/AIDS have been carried out in
27 of China’s 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and major municipalities, contributing
RMB1.867 billion (approximately $229 million). 13
International funding for HIV/AIDS is increasingly reaching implementers on the
ground in central and southwest China where the epidemic is growing fastest.
Importantly, local budgets are increasing in anticipation of even more funds reaching
local levels as provincial and county-level governments build capacity to absorb these
funds. Notably, funding has begun to flow from the Global Fund. The Global Fund
approved $98 million in funding in 2003 and $64 million in 2004 for HIV prevention,
treatment, and care in China. China is seeking an additional round of funding from the
Global Fund that will focus on men who have sex with men (MSM), people living with
HIV/AIDS, rural-to-urban migrants, and sex workers in seven provinces. The five-year,
$28-million application aims to prevent the epidemic among these high-risk groups from
evolving into a generalized epidemic. This “Round 5” application (submitted in June
2005) foresees a dramatic increase in the amount of funding earmarked for use by
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (a requirement of
the funding), particularly NGOs led by people living with HIV/AIDS so they can carry
out epidemiological and behavioral studies and provide some prevention services. In
particular, it is expected that increased support will be channeled to groups working with
CSWs and MSM in China. 14
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has funded HIV/AIDS
projects in Yunnan and Guangxi provinces amounting to $1 million in FY 2002 and $2
million in FY 2003. Total U.S. government commitments to China for HIV-related work
amounts to approximately $35 million over five years, mostly flowing from the National
Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The
UK government–funded China-UK HIV/AIDS program in Yunnan and Sichuan is
12 “ 艾 艾 艾 艾 艾 艾 艾 ” [“Ai zi bing fangzhi tiaoling,” “HIV/AIDS Prevention Regulations”], State Council
order no. 457, issued January 18, 2006, accessed at http://www.chinaids.org.cn/zhq/
ShowContent.asp?lm=011&sn=3658.
13 “New Rules to Combat AIDS Spread,” China Daily (Beijing), October 28, 2005.
14 To see the Chinese application to Round 5 of the Global Fund, see http://www.china-aids.org/gf5/chinaaids-gf5--final.pdf.