https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/390/chinaneps.shtml

In an implicit acknowledgment that purely repressive measures have not worked to reduce China's burgeoning HIV infection rate, the Chinese Health Ministry this week called on local communities around the country to promote needle exchange programs and the distribution of free condoms. The move marks a clear departure from the Chinese government's previous policy of forbidding such harm reduction measures.

The Health Ministry call for needle exchanges marks the second time in as many weeks that Chinese officials have made unusually frank pronouncements about the effectiveness of the country's current drug policies. Last week, top officials of the National Narcotics Control Commission complained that 20 years of drug war had failed to stop rising drug use rates and implored "the broad masses" to join a "people's war on drugs."

The Chinese have not always been so open. For years, the Beijing government denied it had an AIDS problem. No longer.

In new guidelines for dealing with HIV/AIDS, the Health Ministry called on local governments to tailor harm reduction measures such as needle exchange to high-risk groups in their areas. The ministry guidelines include a proposal for using needle exchanges in combination with methadone maintenance for heroin addicts -- a group the government had almost completely ignored in the past, but which is probably responsible for most new HIV infections.

"Under the national health system's launching of a people's war against drugs, drug eradication, AIDS prevention, and daily tasks must be closely joined," said a copy of the guidelines posted on the Health Ministry's Web site.

According to official Chinese statistics, some 840,000 people have HIV and 80,000 have developed full-blown AIDS. But many observers believe the figure is much higher. Chinese state media reported in 2003 that authorities expected 300,000 new cases that year, and the United Nations has published estimates that China could have 10 million or more HIV cases within five years.

In addition to intravenous drug users, the Health Ministry called on local governments to do prevention education with other high-risk groups, including migrant workers, gay men, and prostitutes. Prostitutes should be encouraged to require that customers use condoms, the ministry said, and people who have sexually transmitted diseases should get them free.

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