Yao Ming to star in HIV/AIDS anti-stigma campaign in China

Chinese basketball star Yao Ming is to take part in a nationwide campaign aimed at helping people living with HIV/AIDS better integrate into society, it was announced Wednesday.

Yao, who plays for the Houston Rockets in the National Basketball Association in the United States, will feature with Chinese movie star Pu Cunxin on 200,000 posters to be distributed throughout China.

The aim of the campaign, a partnership between the United Nations and the Chinese government, is to reduce the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS and encourage people to accept those who are infected into their homes, workplaces and communities.
Posters will carry the slogan, "We have the same feelings, the same dreams, the same life. HIV/AIDS will not affect our friendship. We are friends."

"I am hopeful that the images in this campaign will encourage Chinese people to overcome their fear and treat those affected by HIV as friends and equals," said David Ho, director of the U.S.-based Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, which is also involved in the campaign.

"We trust this campaign will help disseminate our common stand for positive action, care and full integration of people living with HIV and AIDS in our global society," added Alessandra Tisot, U.N. Development Program senior deputy resident representative in China.

This is not the first time Yao, who is 2.29 meters tall, has got involved in AIDS awareness campaigns.

In 2004 he took part in a similar campaign with former Los Angeles Lakers basketball start Magic Johnson and a year later listened to the stories of children orphaned because of the illness in Beijing.

At that event he had to console a 14-year-old boy who told Yao other children would not play basketball with him because his parents were infected with the HIV virus, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.