HIV policy tightened in China

A new Chinese government policy requiring HIV testing for foreigners entering the country and citizens who have been abroad for over a year is eliciting doubt among faculty and students as to its probable efficacy in preventing the spread of the AIDS virus.

Put into effect on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, the mandatory testing program concerns all Chinese citizens and foreigners who wish to stay in China for more than a year.

The new policy was announced as part of a government publicity blitz for AIDS prevention and treatment, which included media reports of President Hu Jintao meeting and shaking hands with HIV carriers.

"The Chinese government has paid special attention to the issue, always provided the greatest care to HIV carriers and patients and has earnestly fulfilled promises to curb the spread of the illness," Hu said, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Evan Lieberman, assistant politics professor and faculty director of the Princeton AIDS Initiative (PAI), said he does not expect the new testing program to decrease the rate of HIV contraction in China.

It might even have an adverse effect on the global fight against AIDS, he said in an email. "[Such] tests have the political effect of implying that HIV and AIDS are problems from 'other countries,' which tends to increase the stigma of the virus and to undermine support for many other effective policies."

Timothy Cheston '08, co-president of the Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC), said that the new policy had many flaws.

"My initial reaction is to be against the policy," he said, expressing concerns over whether "people could be seen as unclean" as a result of the indiscriminate testing.

Cheston added that he questioned "what [Chinese government officials] think their own populace will be doing abroad over the year that could justify compulsory HIV testing."

While expressing optimism over steady improvements to the Chinese government's AIDS policies, Cheston said that it is "hard to commend China when the crisis is still mounting itself, and they are by no means over the hump."

Lieberman also had praise for some of China's work to recognize and address the problem of AIDS within its borders.

"While the Chinese government long had a reputation for having its head in the sand about HIV and AIDS," he said, "many of its policies and actions seem to have been more in line with international ... practices."

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He called the Chinese government's willingness to consider relaxing restrictions on HIV-positive foreigners visiting from overseas "a positive development."

Cheston said that as of right now, the SGAC has no action planned concerning the policy, but if there was a "stir in the larger media" the SGAC "would definitely be looking to do something about it."

Itelina Ma '11, who is from Shenzen, China, and is a student studying abroad, might be in a position to undergo testing under the government's new policy. "If I stay here for a year because I am studying here, I will have to be tested for AIDS," she said. "It's something that actually affects me personally."

She cautiously supports the program, however. "Maybe it sort of is an infringement on the right to privacy," she said. But, she added, "I think it is more important [that] China is making an effort to control its HIV problem."