China is widely recognized as a model country for its achievements in the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS, according to Wu Zunyou, director of the National Center for AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease Control and Prevention at the China Center for Disease Control.

Wu said the HIV/AIDS infection rate in China is about 0.06 percent, far lower than the global average of 0.8 percent, according to data released by the World Health Organization. However, because of the large population, China is one of 15 countries with the highest numbers of AIDS carriers in the world.

China's first major outbreak of HIV/AIDS came in the border regions in the 1990s, through intravenous drug use. The disease quickly spread to other provinces through illegal sales of blood.