November 20, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Bill Gates discusses his foundation’s effort to fight the spread of
HIV/AIDS in China on The Wall Street Journal’s Health
Blog.
But one nonprofit observer says Mr. Gates may be playing down the
challenges of working there.
In a question-and-answer format, Mr. Gates says that the China program will focus primarily on preventing the disease among people most likely to be at risk. For example, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has paid for a television
ad produced by the China AIDS Media Project that features the movie star Jackie Chan promoting safe sex.
Mr. Gates also said his fund would work closely with the Chinese
government, despite its mistrust of charities, and acknowledged that
it may be difficult to find nonprofit groups in China that will be able to carry out the foundation’s goals.
A frequent critic of the foundation, the author of the Gates Keepers blog, says Mr. Gates did not fully acknowledge the difficulties.
“Rather a dull interview,” the anonymous author writes. “But there is
one quote that must qualify as the Bill Gates understatement of the
year: ‘Civil society isn’t as well-established in China as in some
other countries.’”
To read more about foundations’ interest in China, read a recent Chronicle article.
What do you think? What should the goals of the Gates Foundation be in China? Will it have difficulty working there because of the lack of established nonprofit efforts?
