China launches first major safe sex TV campaign

China launches first major safe sex TV campaign
A Chinese man checks condoms at the AIDS-awareness display at an exhibition in Shanghai March 2, 2006. China rolled out its first major television campaign on Thursday to promote condom use to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, now mostly being transmitted by sex in the world's most populous country. (Stringer/Reuters)BEIJING (Reuters) - China rolled out its first majortelevision campaign on Thursday to promote condom use to fightthe spread of HIV/AIDS, now mostly being transmitted by sex inthe world's most populous country.
The short public service announcements will mainly be shownon screens in buses, trains and planes, on the Internet, inentertainment venues, and on some state television channels.
They will target the young and China's huge floatingpopulation of migrant workers, using celebrities including HongKong action film star Jackie Chan and Chinese folk singer PengLiyuan, wife of rising political star Xi Jinping.
"It marks a new era in talking frankly and candidly aboutthese issues, which used to be avoided," said UNDP countrydirector Subinay Nandy.
"This initiative is very timely and is very valid for theepidemic situation in China today,"he told a news conference.
China will have an estimated 50,000 new HIV infections in2007, compared with 70,000 in 2005, according to a report bythe State Council (Cabinet) and the United Nations last week.
That means the country will have about 700,000 peopleliving with HIV/AIDS this year, up from an earlier estimate of650,000.
The new education push is designed to slow that growthfurther.
The ads, created by Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon, who won a2007 Oscar for a documentary about AIDS in China, show thestars meeting or watching young people in a variety ofsituations, and saying: "Life is too good, please protectyourself."
A message flashes up saying that sex is now the main routeof infection in China and the young are particularlyvulnerable, adding: "Using condoms can reduce the risk ofcontracting AIDS."
While the ad may appear timid compared to ones usedelsewhere in the world, Chinese actor Pu Cunxin said it markeda breakthrough that sex was now able to be discussed publicly.
"That this appears on television is a very big advance," hesaid. "But the question of sex and condoms is still taboo. Sexis not bad. It's something that should be talked about."
An attempt in 1999 to promote condom use on television waspulled almost at once for breaking a legal ban on condomadvertisements, on the grounds they might promote promiscuity.
Other attempts have similarly foundered.
Condom use in China among vulnerable groups such asprostitutes and men who have sex with men remains low.
While the government no longer views AIDS as a shamefuldisease imported from the decadent West, and has taken a moreproactive approach, problems such as ignorance abouttransmission and discrimination against those living withHIV/AIDS remain.
(Editing by Nick Macfie and Roger Crabb)