From the Washington Post: “Openly combating AIDS has not come easily to the governing Communist Party. Since taking over in 1949, it had largely eradicated prostitution, imposing a civic code in which drug use or sexual promiscuity were taboo. Even to deal with AIDS, officials at all levels have found it hard to acknowledge that prostitution is now booming, as are intravenous drug use and promiscuity.
In addition, discussing prostitution and condom use is out of place in much of the country’s traditional rural society. The 60 percent of the population that lives in villages and small towns includes millions who travel to big cities temporarily to look for work, often as single men. ”
