Abstract
The previous two chapters have examined China’s compliance or noncompliance with the global health regime at both international and domestic levels. An equally important issue is whether China is proactive in improving the provision of global public goods for health. If China genuinely behaves as a responsible state, particularly as a responsible rising power and a leader of the developing world, it will be obliged to help developing states contain the spread of HIV/AIDS. This chapter will examine what China has contributed to solving the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, particularly the countries south of the Sahara—which is home to 10 percent of the world’s population but 67 percent of total HIV/AIDS infections globally—and the nature of China’s involvement in the continent (see figure 5.1).
My idea of a better ordered world is one in which medical discoveries would be free of patents and there would be no profiteering from life or death.
—Indira Gandhi, 19821
Access to affordable treatment and adequate health services has become one of the single most important differentiating factors between HIV-related survival in rich and poor countries and communities.
—Tony Barnett and Alan Whiteside, 20022
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Notes
The statement was addressed to the 35th World Health Assembly in Geneva on May 6, 1982. Quoted in Asia Russell, “Trading Life and Death: AIDS and the Global Economy,” in The Global Politics of AIDS, ed. Paul G. Harris and Patricia D. Siplon (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007), 225.
Tony Barnett and Alan Whiteside, AIDS in the Twenty-First Century: Disease and Globalisation (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 342.
Song Hong, “Fuzeren di fazhanzhong daguo” [A Responsible Developing Great State], Shijie jingji yu zhengzhi [World Economics and Politics] 12 (2002): 28–33.
Among twenty-nine Asian and African countries at the conference, China and North Vietnam were the only two Communist participants. Fifteen of them were anti-Communist states and twelve were neutral countries. Seven months before the Bandung Conference, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand signed an agreement in Manila to form an anti-Communist Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). During the Bandung Conference, Zhou expressed full recognition of the general anti-Communist feeling in the third world and appeared to be a quiet listener at the beginning of the meeting. In view of the conflicts between anti-Communist and neutral nations, Zhou proficiently mediated between them and urged them to seek the “common ground” of anticolo-nialism regardless of their political hue. He announced that China was willing to negotiate with the United States over Taiwan. See Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China (New York: Norton, 1990), 526
King C. Chen, ed., China and the Three Worlds: A Foreign Policy Reader (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1979), 15–16.
Peter Van Ness, Revolution and Chinese Foreign Policy: Peking’s Support for Wars of National Liberation (Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1970), 16.
Michael Yahuda, Towards the End of Isolationism: China’s Foreign Policy after Mao (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983), 25–34.
The quotation is originally excerpted from Peking Review, no. 45, November4, 1977. See “ChairmanMao’s Theoryof the Differentiation of the Three Worlds is a Major Contribution to Marxism-Leninism,” in King C. Chen, ed., China and the Three Worlds: A Foreign Policy Reader (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1979), 104.
Gerald Chan, “Power and Responsibility in China’s International Relations,” in Yongjin Zhang and Greg Austin, eds., Power and Responsibility in Chinese Foreign Policy (Canberra: Asia Pacific Press, 2001), 57; and Frank Ching, “Real Aid for African Friends,” South China Morning Post, July 13, 2005.
Li Anshan, “Zhongguo yuanwai yiliaodui de lishi, guimo ji qi yingxi-ang” [The History, Scope and Effect of China’s Medical Aid], Waijiao Pinglun [Foreign Affairs Review] 1 (2009): 38.
Quoted in Li Anshan, “Policies and Challenges,” China Security 3, no. 3 (Summer 2007): 78.
Sun Wu, Suntzu bingfa, sanshiliu ji [The Art of War, 36 Stratagems], 5th ed. (Beijing: Jing Hua chubanshe, 2002), 36.
Denis M. Tull, “China’s Engagement in Africa: Scope, Significance and Consequences,” Journal of Modern African Studies 44, no. 3 (2006): 459–79.
Philip Snow, “China and Africa: Consensus and Camouflage,” in Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice, ed. Thomas W. Robinson and David Shambaugh (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), 285.
Caroline Thomas, “Trade Policy, the Politics of Access to Drugs and Global Governance for Health,” in Health Impacts of Globalisation: Towards Global Governance, ed. Kelley Lee (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 180.
With a contribution of US$5 million, drug companies would be able to get a seat on the governing board of the World Bank AIDS Trust Fund. Kofi Annan proposed a similar system for the governing board of UNAIDS. See Nana K. Polu, “Global Pandemics: HIV/AIDS,” in Governing Globalisation: Power, Authority and Global Governance, ed. David Held and Anthony McGrew (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002), 121–24.
Michael P. Ryan, Knowledge Diplomacy: Global Competition and the Politics of Intellectual Property (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1998), 9.
Mark Heywood, “Drug Access, Patents and Global Health: ‘Chaffed and Waxed Sufficient,’ ” in Global Health and Governance: HIV/AIDS, ed. Nana K. Poku and Alan Whiteside (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 34.
Nana K. Poku, “Global pandemics: HIV/AIDS,” in Governing Globalisation: Power, Authority and Global Governance, ed. David Held and Anthony McGrew (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002), 124.
Hakan Seckinelgin, International Politics of HIV/AIDS: Global Disease-Local Pain (London and New York: Routledge, 2008), 28–29.
Susan K. Sell, “International Institutions, Intellectual Property, and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic,” in HIV/AIDS and the Threat to National and International Security, ed. Robert L. Ostergard, Jr. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 148–70
Asia Russell, “Trading Life and Death: AIDS and the Global Economy,” in The Global Politics of AIDS, ed. Paul G. Harris and Patricia D. Siplon (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007), 225–45.
Duncan Matthews, “WTO Decision on Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health: A Solution to the Access to Essential Medicines Problem?” Journal of International Economic Law 7, no. 1 (2004): 73–107.
Frederick M. Abbott, “The WTO Medicines Decision: World Pharmaceutical Trade and the Protection of Public Health,” American Journal of International Law 99, no. 2 (2005): 318.
Margaret M. Pearson, “China in Geneva: Lessons from China’s Early Years in the World Trade Organization,” in New Directions in the Study of China’s Foreign Policy, ed. Alastair Iain Johnston and Robert S. Ross (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 242–75.
Rong Min and Guo Hui, “WTO duoha fazhan huihe guanyu ’TRIPS Xieding’ de Tanpan he Zhongguo de Canyu” [The Negotiation of the ’TRIPS Agreement’ on the Development of Doha Round and China’s Participation], Shijie Maoyi Zhuzhi Dongtai Yu Yanjiu [World Trade Organization Focus] 11 (2005): 1–6.
Yang Zhongwei, “TRIPS xiayaopin zhuanliquanyu gonggong jiank-angquan de chongtu yu xietiao” [The Conflict Between Patent Right of Drugs and Public Health Right under TRIPS and Harmonization], Zhongguo weisheng shiye guanli [The Chinese Health Service Management] 4 (2007): 255–56, 281.
Ibid.; and Yang Jun, “TRIPS xieyi xiugai dui Zhongguo aizibing yaopin kejixing de yingxiang ji yingdui celue” [The Effect of the Amendment of TRIPS Agreement on the Access to AIDS Medicines in China and Counter Measures], Xinjiang shehui kexue [Social Sciences in Xinjiang] 2 (2006): 77–80.
See Corinne Squire, HIV in South Africa (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007)
Amy Patterson, The Politics of AIDS in Africa (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2006); Niekerk and Kopelman, eds., Ethics and AIDS in Africa; Poku, AIDS in Africa; and Nana K. Poku and Alan Whiteside, eds., The Political Economy of AIDS in Africa (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004).
Zhang Feng, “Second-Line Treatment in Urgent Demand,” China Daily, December 1, 2006.
Mary Ann Benitez, “Drug Failing to Curb HIV,” South China Morning Post, December 17, 2007.
Zhang Feng, “Second-Line Treatment in Urgent Demand,” China Daily, December 1, 2006.
Tom Miller, “Coalitions Gain Trust of Authorities,” South China Morning Post, March 31, 2006.
Linda M. Distlerath, “China and HIV/AIDS Public-Private Partnership: Breaking the Chain,” The World Today 62, no. 4 (April 2006): 15–17.
Pearson, “China in Geneva”; Alastair Iain Johnston, “Is China a Status Quo Power?” International Security 27, no. 4 (2003): 5–56
Margaret M. Pearson, “China’s Integration into the International Trade and Investment Regime,” in China Joins the World: Progress and Prospects, ed. Elizabeth Economy and Michel Oksenberg (New York; Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1999), 161–205
Samuel S. Kim, “China and the United Nations,” in China Joins the World: Progress and Prospects, ed. Elizabeth Economy and Michel Oksenberg (New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1999), 42–89.
Lai-Ha Chan, “WHO: The World’s Most Powerful International Organization?” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 64, no. 2 (January 2010): 97–98.
Before the election, Margaret Chan was WHO assistant director general for communicable diseases and had been the director of health of Hong Kong during the SARS outbreak in 2003. There are two different camps about Chan’s succession. On the one hand, since Chan is familiar with the Chinese system and has experience working with the Chinese authorities, it is hoped that China will feel more comfortable in handling its relationships with the WHO and will be more transparent in sharing information. Interestingly just one day after Chan was elected director general of WHO, China sent twenty samples of bird flu virus to a WHO laboratory in the United States after it had declined to do so since 2004. See Frank Ching, “All Eyes on the Doctor,” South China Morning Post, November 14, 2006;
Mary Ann Benitez, “Beijing Ends Impasse over Bird Flu Samples Virus Sent to US a Day after Chan is Elected WHO Chief,” South China Morning Post, November 11, 2006. However, the other camp questions if she will be too sympathetic to China. In addition, given China’s sluggish response to the SARS outbreak, they question whether Chan would dare to tell Beijing what to do if a similar outbreak were to occur. See “HK Experience a Good Qualification for WHO Chief,” South China Morning Post, July 26, 2006.
Yanzhong Huang, “Pursuing Health as Foreign Policy: The Case of China” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 17, no. 1 (2010): 126.
Patsy Moy, Paggie Leung, and Mary Ann Benitez, “Margaret Chan Wins Beijing’s Backing,” South China Morning Post, July 26, 2006.
David Brown, “Chinese Physician Elected Head of WHO; Chan Instrumental in Fighting SARS, Bird Flu Outbreaks,” Washington Post, November 10, 2006.
Yong Deng, China’s Struggle for Status: The Realignment of International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
Pang Zhongying, “Beijing a Normal Global Power: On Rebuilding China’s World View,” Beijing Review, July 18, 2002:12–13.
Shigeru Omi, “Overview,” in SARS: How a Global Epidemic was Stopped, ed. World Health Organization (Geneva: World Health Organization, Western Pacific Region, 2006), vii-x.
Cited in David Brown, “Chinese Physician Elected Head of WHO; Chan Instrumental in Fighting SARS, Bird Flu Outbreaks,” Washington Post, November 10, 2006. Emphasis added.
Betsy Mckay, “Top Global Health Jobs up for Grabs,” Wall street Journal Asia, September 5, 2006.
Andrew Jack, “Woman in the News: Margaret Chan,” Financial Times, May 8, 2009.
William Wallis and Geoff Dyer, “Financing: Lending Rattles the Traditional Donors,” Financial Times, January 23, 2008.
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Chan, LH. (2011). China’s Contribution to Global Health Governance: China’s Role in Africa’s AIDS Crisis and WHO. In: China Engages Global Health Governance. Palgrave Series on Asian Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230116245_5
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