Xinhua posted several articles examining HIV/AIDS in China. The first looks at HIV/AIDS among the general population. The article notes that 346,000 people are living with HIV in China, and the “number is predicted to hit 780,000 by the end of 2011, according to an expert panel … [c]onsisting of members from China’s Ministry of Health (MOH), the World Health Organization and UNAIDS,” the MOH reported in a statement released on Tuesday (11/29). A second article discusses HIV/AIDS among the country’s older population, especially men, and college students (11/30).

“China has made ‘fantastic progress’ combating HIV/AIDS in recent years, according to a senior U.N. official in the country,” a third article reports. “‘Over the last eight years, there has been a reduction in mortality due to AIDS of about 60 percent,’ said Mark Stirling, U.N. country coordinator for AIDS in China,” the news agency writes. “By 2015, China plans to reduce AIDS deaths by 30 percent and reduce new infections by 25 percent,” Xinhua notes, adding, “To achieve these goals, Stirling said China needs to double its HIV testing rate and increase its antiretroviral therapy rate to 80 percent” (11/30).