VZCZCXRO2811
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHGZ #0500/01 2310918
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 180918Z AUG 08
FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7515
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000500 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM 
HHS PASS TO FIC/NIH 
BANGKOK FOR RMO, CDC, USAID 
BEIJING FOR HHS HEALTH ATTACHE AND RMO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO PGOV EAID SOCI CH
SUBJECT: American Companies in Guangdong Take Lead in Adopting 
HIV/AIDS Workplace Awareness Programs 
 
REF: Shenyang 0069 
 
(U) This document is sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: HIV/AIDS awareness training, especially its 
transmission sexually, has increasingly become a priority for U.S. 
firms - like New Balance, Nordstrom, Levi Strauss and Wal-Mart - 
with suppliers and migrant workers in south China.  Winning support 
from factory management is often the key to the success of such 
programs.  Other challenges include high turnover rates and workers 
who are not receptive to awareness training.  International 
organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and provincial 
and local government have all played a role in these initial 
efforts.   End summary. 
 
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HIV/AIDS Training in Factories: Why Now? 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Sexual transmission has been the dominant form of 
transmission of HIV/AIDS in China since 2005, according to the 
Ministry of Health.  U.S. firms with suppliers in the Pearl River 
Delta are taking notice, and their corporate social responsibility 
priorities increasingly include HIV/AIDS awareness training. 
Crystal Xiong, New Balance's footwear compliance manager, explained 
that her firm realized that many of its suppliers' employees, almost 
100 percent migrant workers, were engaging in risky sexual behavior 
and lacked education and awareness about HIV/AIDS.  New Balance - 
along with Nordstrom, Levi Strauss and Wal-Mart - is taking a more 
proactive approach to increase HIV/AIDS awareness among factory 
workers.  It is in discussions with Nike and Adidas about possible 
cooperation on these efforts as well.  Thomas Cai of AIDS Care 
China, an unregistered Chinese NGO, commented that these initiatives 
have also been spurred by the presence of HIV/AIDS awareness 
programs sponsored by the Gates and Clinton Foundations in China. 
 
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Third-Party Coordinators Play a Key Role 
---------------------------------------- 
 
3.(SBU) Organizations like the International Labor Organization 
(ILO) and Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) have been working 
closely with foreign companies to facilitate awareness training 
programs in Guangdong factories.  The ILO is working with 19 foreign 
companies whose suppliers employ a combined total of 120,000 
workers.  Their efforts have focused mainly on male migrant workers 
with the objectives of changing high-risk behavior, such as 
frequenting commercial sex workers, and decreasing discrimination 
against workers who are HIV positive.  Liang Manguang, who was 
appointed by the Guangdong Labor Department to help coordinate the 
ILO project, stressed that these programs are necessary to educate 
Guangdong's 20 million migrant workers who are mostly young, far 
away from home and likely to engage in risky behavior. 
 
¶4. (U) BSR, a non-profit membership organization that promotes 
corporate social responsibility, is working with Nordstrom on a 
program that focuses on women's reproductive health and HIV/AIDS 
awareness.  They have implemented a pilot project in the factories 
of five Nordstrom suppliers located in Guangdong, which they hope to 
make permanent by the end of this summer.  BSR is recruiting other 
brands for similar programs. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
Supportive Local and Provincial Governments 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) Representatives from ILO, BSR, and AIDS Care China told 
consulate officer that Guangdong's provincial and local governments 
are relatively open to HIV/AIDS awareness initiatives. Richard 
Howard, Chief Technical Advisor for the ILO's HIV/AIDS Workplace 
Education Program in China, attributed this openness in part to 
Guangdong's strong market orientation.  BSR's China director, Zhou 
Weidong, highlighted close cooperation with the Guangdong Family 
Planning Commission (GD FPC) as a partner, noting its presence at 
every level of government and even in factories.  The GD FPC has 
worked with BSR to incorporate HIV/AIDS education into an existing 
reproductive health curriculum.  The ILO has also offered to GD 
FPC's large corps of trainers training on HIV/AIDS awareness 
education. 
 
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Management is Key to Success 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000500  002 OF 002 
 
 
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¶6. (SBU) BSR's Zhou underscored that whether HIV/AIDS awareness 
programs are implemented and ultimately successful in a factory 
really depends on management.   He said that BSR was still having 
trouble convincing factory managers because they could not tie it 
directly to a factory's productivity and efficiency.  Many managers 
are reluctant to interrupt production to make time for training 
programs.  Nordstrom encouraged all 15 of its factories to 
participate in its HIV/AIDS awareness program, but only five chose 
to do so, and ultimately, only three factories said that they would 
continue the program. 
 
---------------- 
Other Challenges 
---------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) U.S. companies face other challenges in implementing 
effective education and awareness programs. Most companies have high 
turnover rates; this not only makes training difficult to implement, 
but it also makes it difficult to assess the program's success.  For 
example, one firm that implemented HIV/AIDS awareness training has a 
turnover rate of 9-10 percent per month.  Another obstacle is 
workers who are not receptive to awareness training.  Huang 
Dongming, Director of the Female Worker's Department of the 
Guangdong Trade Union, commented that most migrant workers are not 
enthusiastic about such training because they still think the 
chances of contracting HIV/AIDS are very remote and would rather 
spend their time in other ways - an observation shared by other 
companies and organizations with which we spoke. 
 
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Success Story: Yue Chen Shoes Manufacturers 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) According to Xiong, one of New Balance's biggest success 
stories has been Yue Chen Shoe Manufacturers because its management 
places a high premium on improving workers' lives.  Yue Chen, with 
the help of the ILO, has established an AIDS prevention team and 
sets aside time for workers to receive basic training.  In addition, 
it includes HIV/AIDS prevention information in its internal business 
magazine and incorporates HIV/AIDS prevention education into 
unrelated activities, such as short educational videos which are 
shown at the beginning of movie screenings offered as entertainment. 
 Yue Chen found that a lot of workers were initially afraid of AIDS 
because they didn't understand the disease, and their fear fueled 
discriminatory sentiments.  However, a survey revealed that after 
implementing awareness training, discriminatory attitudes towards 
those infected with HIV/AIDS fell from 80.5 percent to 10.6 percent. 
 New Balance hopes that it can use success stories like Yue Chen to 
entice other suppliers to adopt similar programs. 
 
GOLDBERG