The Ministry of Health has ruled out the possibility of any blood shortages in China, even though many parts of the nation have reported the problem. Health Minister, Chen Zhu, even mobilized his colleagues to donate blood by rolling up his sleeve and offering a vein on Oct 30.

However, blood centers and hospitals in many areas said they were running low on blood. In Beijing alone, blood centers' stocks were 1.6 million milliliters in the first week of November, the standard requirement is 2.4 million milliliters.

Hospitals and health organizations regularly need to make special appeals to cover such shortages. Every day thousands of Chinese give their blood to help save the lives of people they will never know. Donating blood is both noble and necessary. Yet millions of Chinese do not choose to give this gift.

Only 0.84 percent of the population donate blood voluntarily, much lower than 4.54 percent in high-income countries and 1.01 percent in middle-income countries.

Those generous people who donate their blood - few as they are - put their compatriots to shame. More than 90 percent of the blood donors are college students and farmers-turned-workers.

China's Blood Donation Law entitled voluntary blood donors and their immediate family blood for free when needed. But the procedures are so complicated that it is impossible to claim the free blood. This has, to a large extent, turned eligible blood donors away from blood donation drives.

There is a big demand for blood, and supply is not keeping pace. There is a vast population of people who could donate but don't. Despite a never-ending number of blood drives, supplies always seem short. Disasters like the Wenchuan earthquake in Southwest China's Sichuan province in 2008 saw a big increase in donations, but that subsides soon enough, and we are back to the same old shortages.

It's necessary to take measures and effectively apply the nation's Blood Donation Law, to make free use of blood for blood donors and their immediate family a reality.

The campaign by the Red Cross Society of China and other organizations to raise awareness of the blood shortages is not intensive enough to have much effect.

As far as young people are concerned, it looks like we have failed to create appropriate recruitment programs.

One way to increase the frequency of donations is through more effective communication with donors. Our current efforts must be rendered more methodical and accomplished through a wider range of tools, including telephone or electronic reminders, television, advertisements and letters.

So far, these tools are not visible.