China launches first major safe sex TV campaign

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - 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.

The short public service announcements will mainly be shown on screens in buses, trains and planes, on the Internet, in entertainment venues, and on some state television channels.

They will target the young and China's huge floating population of migrant workers, using celebrities including Hong Kong action film star Jackie Chan and Chinese folk singer Peng Liyuan, wife of rising political star Xi Jinping.

"It marks a new era in talking frankly and candidly about these issues, which used to be avoided," said UNDP country director Subinay Nandy.

"This initiative is very timely and is very valid for the epidemic situation in China today,"he told a news conference.

China will have an estimated 50,000 new HIV infections in 2007, compared with 70,000 in 2005, according to a report by the State Council (Cabinet) and the United Nations last week.

That means the country will have about 700,000 people living with HIV/AIDS this year, up from an earlier estimate of 650,000.

The new education push is designed to slow that growth further.