| CHINA
Slowly, Transforming the Party Line on AIDS
by Ma Guihua and Lin Gu, Beijing*
Prof. Jin Wei had never been as touched by a conference the way she was during the XV International AIDS Conference in July 2004 in Thailand. Sitting among tens of thousands of people inside the stadium where the conference was held, Jin witnessed U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan light a candle in the darkness, which was subsequently broken by numerous flashlights that lit up and dotted the whole venue.
For Jin, all her bittersweet experiences on HIV/AIDS seemed to be rewarded as this candlelit message was clear: you are not alone, but are part of this fight.
A year later, Jin found herself standing in front of Dr Peter Piot, the executive director of the Joint U.N. Programme on AIDS, to receive the UNAIDS award for her special personal contribution in the fight against the pandemic.
When the AIDS policy forum was crafted and pushed by Jin at the Party School of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee in June 2001, many people thought it was out of place, holding that it had little to do with the top training centre for the middle and high-ranking officials of China's ruling party.
After all, most of students at the party school are chiefs of government departments or cities at the prefectural level. To them, the subject of the programme — an AIDS policy seminar — should be the business of health departments, or should be handled by their subordinates in charge of health affairs.
But Professor Jin Wei maintains that as the control and prevention of HIV/AIDS has in fact been ranked high on the Chinese leaders' agenda — "The middle-ranking officials' awareness and understanding of AIDS problems and policies are crucial in the war against AIDS, as they are the backbone to execute the central government's policies."
Thanks to support of the school authorities, she started by conducting surveys among the officials at the prefectural or department level studying at the Party school on their awareness of AIDS-related issues.
To her surprise, about 23 percent of the 400 respondents had no idea of China's 'Long and Medium Term Programme for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control (1998-2010)', a document approved by the State Council in 1998. The programme urges all the provincial governments to include the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS into the local programmes for economic and social development, and to set up a system to involve government leaders and various departments in the work in a coordinated way.
Some 64.5 percent of them had not leafed through the document, although they said they had heard of it before. Close to 32 percent of the students the party school polled in 2002 believed that AIDS prevention has nothing to do with their work.
Such responses made Jin, a professor of nationality and religion theories for almost 20 years at the Party School, feel it was necessary to work on HIV awareness among China's up-and-coming officials. Funded by the Sino-UK HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Project and the Ford Foundation subsequently, the programmed pushed by Jin integrated AIDS-related content in extracurricular training course in the school.
"It has been very difficult," recalls Jin of the Institute of Social Development Research at the school. "AIDS is an extremely sensitive topic which quite a few officials would rather keep a decent distance from. They wouldn't like to get involved in such seminars for fear of being associated with unethical behaviour."
But this attitude indicates the very reason why such education is a must, she says. "Leaders of the Party and government are not only China's AIDS policymakers, but also performers and executors of the policies. Their consciousness of the work and selection of strategies have direct bearing on the effects of AIDS prevention. Therefore, alerting them to AIDS policies is a top priority in China's AIDS control drive," she explains.
Thus, in every semester from 2001 to 2004 , public health officials and experts at the frontline of the battle against AIDS were invited to give lectures on all aspects of the epidemic, followed by discussions between trainees and experts centreing on decision-making and AIDS prevention policies.
"I call these literacy classes on AIDS knowledge and policies. And it's gratifying to see how people change in their way of thinking," says Jin Wei.
Surveys prior to and after each training session record progress. Bias against HIV carriers in employment and education has come down, officials say.
More trainees have also begun to ponder policy alternatives. After a seminar on harm reduction measures in foreign countries for drug addicts and sex workers, a senior official working with the political and legislative affairs committee of a southwest province observed, "We used to launch campaigns to crack down on drug abuse and prostitution, but they bounced back very quickly. We've been reflecting on the method and effect. It seems that a proper management would be more effective. We need to reduce the harm to the society to the minimum."
Jin was greatly moved by such unexpected outcomes of the HIV/AIDS awareness training. "Reflections like this would greatly benefit society, compared to having an individual change his or her behaviour. And the low cost of training may lead to incredible social impact," she marvels.
She calls such interaction between trainees and experts "capacity building". She adds, "Unlike my course on nationality or religion which is set more or less within a fixed framework, interaction with trainees and experts on the AIDS issue is very challenging."
Professor Jing Jun, director of the HIV/AIDS Policy Research Centre at Qinghua University, who has given three lectures at the Party School, is all praises for the training on AIDS at the Party school.
"It is of particular importance, taking into consideration that the school is a vital leg in training leaders at different levels before they are promoted. It's a good way to draw the leaders' attention to the current public health system as well as to social justice and development," he says.
According to him, a lecture or seminar that lasts less than three hours each is enough to change people's views that are often based on ethical moral judgement. Those who had previously wished to quarantine people with HIV or AIDS patients on the presumption that they had been infected because they were promiscuous now would be more cautious in drawing these conclusions. Up to 80 percent of the leaders chose to care for HIV-positive people, regardless of how they got the virus. "Such change in attitude is timely and crucial."
Li Junru, vice president of the Party School, once told Jin that AIDS as part of international strategy is high on the bilateral agenda between China and the United States. "This work is very important despite of misunderstanding by many people, so keep on trying, one more forum is another victory," Li says.
Based on the on-campus lectures and discussions in the last three years, Prof. Jin Wei compiled last year 'A Leadership Textbook on AIDS Prevention Policies, 'which is a practical reference for decision makers at all levels. "In the book, there are detailed analyses on how AIDS could affect a region's GDP and stability if not tackled well. It's already an issue that pertains to economic and social security," Jin explains.
Having come this far, Jin Wei realises there is no turning back. With encouragement from both trainees and people working in the AIDS circles, she started training also among teachers from provincial party schools in the hope that such forums can be duplicated locally.
"Many people believe that with the political will from the central government to control AIDS in China, coupled with increased funding to this effect, AIDS is no longer an issue," she explains. "However, commitment by the government needs to be translated into concrete actions to be effective."
Slow as the process of awareness and understanding of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is, Jin Wei is trying in her own small way to smooth what she calls the "ileus" in between the central government and people on the ground. (END/IPS/IPSAP)
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