A group of AIDS patients, doctors and advocates from around the world affiliated with AIDS Healthcare Foundation are targeting China for its alleged misuse of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and will step up a demand that China contributes USD1 billion to the Fund for the worldwide fight against AIDS.
U.S.-based AIDS advocates have called on China to contribute USD1 billion to the Global Fund, noting that over the past decade China received nearly USD1 billion from the Global Fund as a recipient country, yet contributed just USD25 million as a donor. Over the same years, the United States has contributed more than one-third of all contributions to the Fund.
“China currently has over USD2.5 trillion in foreign currency reserves. It spent over USD40 billion to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, and over USD58 billion to hold the 2010 World Exposition,” said Tom Myers, chief of public affairs and general counsel for AIDS Healthcare Foundation and who is based in Washington. “China is a wealthy country that can pay for its own health care needs and it can certainly step up and contribute more to the Global Fund.”
The Global Fund is a program funded by the wealthy nations that is designed to provide financial assistance to developing countries that lack the resources to fight diseases and build up medical infrastructures.