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Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (1251)	11/6/2003 7:24:43 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

Epidemic threatens to devastate China's economy By GEOFFREY YORK Thursday, November 6, 2003 - Page A20 BEIJING -- China's growing AIDS epidemic could trigger social instability and jeopardize its economic boom unless its leaders break their silence on the crisis, a senior United Nations official warned yesterday. The virus's dramatic spread in China has already provoked violent protests and a brutal police crackdown in the province of Henan, where hundreds of thousands of impoverished villagers were infected with the virus when they sold their blood to hospitals and clinics in the 1990s. Now the UN is warning of further social unrest and a derailing of China's rapid economic growth unless Beijing soon begins a serious effort to tackle the epidemic, which is believed to have infected as many as 1.5 million Chinese. At the current growth rate, the UN predicts that AIDS could infect a total of 10 million Chinese by the end of the decade. Peter Piot, head of the United Nations AIDS program, says he has warned the Chinese government that the epidemic could lead to social instability and political paralysis. Yet the highest-ranking government leaders have failed to make any strong statements on the issue, making it easy for business leaders and local officials to ignore the crisis, he said yesterday. Indeed, half of the Chinese population doesn't know what AIDS is, Mr. Piot said. "The first thing we have to do is to break the silence about AIDS," he said. "A lot of work needs to be done with the provinces." globeandmail.com