Wang Longde stated that the AIDS epidemic in China has the following characteristics: the range of AIDS patients and infected people is relatively broad, the rate of increase is high, those infected are generally concentrated in the countryside, certain localities are already displaying a peak in disease incidence and deaths, and so on. Prevention and treatment work is a formidable task. The Chinese government has already done much to address this issue. AIDS prevention and treatment has had investment from every level of public funds and last year this amount was increased to 3.9 billion. At the same time there was a further investment of 25 billion to set up nation-wide blood stations so as to reduce the incidence of HIV transmission through blood transfusions.

Wang Longde said, “The next step that we would like to take is to fully develop the role of non-government organizations. This is because these organizations are sometimes able to carry out work not possible by government organizations. It is especially important in AIDS prevention and treatment work to coordinate the strengths of every area. We would like to widely publicize, so as to distribute knowledge among the masses. We would like to earnestly put into practice the series of instructions given to us by the State Council such as the policy of ‘Four Frees and One Care’, such as publicity, so as to increase the effectiveness of this work. In addition, we would also like to increase cooperation with international organizations. We need to broadly mobilize the strengths of society so as to make a concerted effort to control this serious threat to the health of our people.”