The first AIDS-prevention proposal ever by a
National People's
Congress deputy was put forward at the Fifth Session of the
Ninth National People's Congress in Beijing this March by a man who
was moved by a newspaper article he read recently on an AIDS
patient.
"I
am not a medical worker," said Chen Hong, a deputy to the Ninth
National People's Congress (NPC), who submitted a proposal urging
the central government to give greater support for enacting the Law
on Prevention of Occupational Diseases in west China.
"It's my temporary proposal," said Chen, "I was moved by an article
on the fourth page of The Xinhua Daily Telegraph on March 1,
titled I'm an AIDS Patient in the Sun,' so I made up my mind to put
forward this proposal. I am rather ignorant about AIDS. However, as
I am aware of the severe harm of AIDS as a disease that is called
the plague of the century,' I think it only responsible to submit
such a proposal."
Last November, China's First National AIDS Conference was held in
Beijing where experts warned that the number of HIV-positive people
could top 10 million by 2010 if their number soars by 30
percent.
"It's not impossible at the going rate. The total number of
HIV-positive people last year increased by 67.4 percent over the
previous year," said Chen, "The prevention of AIDS has a bearing on
the future living environment and quality of life for Chinese
people. However, we haven't paid adequate attention to the
issue."
Beginning last year, the state allocated 100 million yuan (US$10.08
million) annually from central revenue as a special fund for the
prevention of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STD), and at
the same time took 950 million yuan (US$114.7 million) out of
treasury bonds to help build blood stations.
Deputy Chen said that although the central government has increased
the amount of funds allocated to the prevention of AIDS from 15
million yuan (US$1.81 million) to more than 1 billion yuan
(US$120.77 million), amount to each person in China gets less than
one yuan (12 cents) on average for the prevention of AIDS virus.
The funds for AIDS prevention don't compare even with the funds for
building a road, which may amount to thousands of million yuan or
even tens of billion yuan.
"We should guarantee the input in preventing AIDS even if we may
have fewer roads built," said Chen, "In the long term, building
fewer roads may adversely affect the national economic development,
but the significance will be farther-reaching if the money is used
in AIDS prevention. It will be too late if the HIV-infected
population tops 10 million."
According to Chen, once the prevention of AIDS arouses great
concern of the state, a lot of problems surrounding this issue can
be readily solved. He recalled that he put forward at the first
session of the Ninth NPC in 1998 a proposal to "clarify the legal
status of non-public economy."
Because this proposal involved amending the Constitution, only some
20 deputies supported it. However, after the proposal was published
in The Xinhua Daily Telegraph on March 6, 1998, some 219
deputies representing 14 provinces and regions approved and signed
their names on his proposal before it was submitted to the NPC. The
bill on amending the Constitution formed at the second session of
the Ninth NPC, including the main contents of the proposal.
"I
believe that the objective of preventing and controlling AIDS will
be accomplished as long as the state attaches great importance to
the work," said Chen. Therefore, Chen asks in his proposal that the
state set up a special fund within the health budget to ensure the
smooth progress of AIDS prevention and accelerate medical research
on AIDS.
(新華通訊社
[Xinhua News Agency] March 13, 2002 by Huang Guan, translated by
Zhang Tingting for china.org.cn)