Hu is the second national leader worldwide to visit an AIDS patients' ward, next to Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa.

"This is a great feat of breakthrough significance," said Prof.Jin Jun, director of prestigious Tsinghua University HIV/AIDS policy research center, adding it has an "epic meaning" to China'sAIDS prevention and control work.

Within the span of a year, two top Chinese leaders called on AIDS patients. When Premier Wen Jiabao first visited AIDS patientson December 1, 2003, many Chinese were deeply touched at the very moment he shook hands with AIDS patients.

"Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao sent a strong message that China is fully capable of AIDS prevention and treatment work, and their personal visits to AIDS patients far excel the issuing of a host of documents," noted Jin Jun.

The Chinese government and general public have begun to courageously face up AIDS, a deadly disease described by media overseas as "secret plague", nearly two decades after the virus was first spotted.

In Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan province, 30 AIDS patients and HIV carriers a week preceding the 17th "AIDS day", presented short plays to feature their plights after being infected with the killer virus of the disease.

They were no professional artists, but the performance they staged moved an audience of 1,500, including the country's most popular star.

The amateur troupe, set up last year by HIV carriers in Gongmintownship of Zizhong county to arouse the awareness of locals for AIDS prevention, calls for the attention and care of the entire society to AIDS victims.

Nearly half of the 30 actors acknowledged that media should publicize their pictures without any cover ups.

"What I admired them most was their courage," said Pu Cunxin, a popular Chinese actor and a fine representative of AIDS prevention campaign in the country, after he viewed their performance.

By bravely coming to the fore, Pu said, these special performing artists have won not only the heart of society, but shown their high sense of duty and care to other people.

"Many people discriminate against HIV carriers and AIDS sufferers, but they are not to blame, as I know they fear out of their ignorance about the disease," noted Li Bencai, a 36-year-oldman who was infected with the decease about nine years ago.

Li Qian, a Chengdu resident who had never met a coming-out HIV carrier before, said the performance filled her with a better knowledge on AIDS and its sufferers.

"Now I don't think there is any difference between us," she said.

The debut of the amateur troupe a year ago, nevertheless, met with cold shoulders outside the theater though it turned out to bea success. The HIV actors and actresses did not find a place to stay overnight until they tried more than 40 inns.

Shift of public attitude is closely related with the strong will shown by its government.

Prof. Li Dun in Tsinghua University in Beijing, who had spent awhole decade in doing researches of AIDS related policies, acknowledged that the feature of AIDS is detrimental to the life of sufferers, and the caring attitude shown by the Chinese government epitomizes the government's commitment to the people.

China now has approximately 840,000 AIDS infected people, ranking Asia's second in term of infected AIDS patients. AIDS was a very sensitive topic in China for it has been spreading fast through such means as sex intercourse and drug taking, which were looked down upon by the traditional culture in the country.

Li Dun said that AIDS issue constitutes a test of China's response capability, as well as the governance capability of the country.

In their speeches, Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao and other Chinese senior officials underscored repeatedly that AIDS is a very crucial issue to the country's sustenance and development.

The State Council, or the central Chinese government, founded its AIDS prevention work committee at the beginning of this year, in a substantial effort to provide treatment and checking-up free to AIDS patients in rural areas and urban AIDS patients in need.

In February, Wu Yi, Chinese vice premier and minister of healthmet and interviewed Gao Yaojie, a veteran woman doctor from central China's Henan province who had dedicated herself to AIDS prevention and treatment, inquiring of her suggestions on aiding rural AIDS patients.

Just after China's traditional Spring Festival early this year,76 officials from Henan were sent to stay a year in its 38 AIDS-vulnerable villages to the aid of local folks infected with AIDS virus.

Currently, condoms have been provided free at recreational centers in the capital of Beijing and southwest China's Sichuan and Yunnan provinces as part of the national effort to curb the spread of AIDS virus.

The Ministry of Health issued a report on AIDS prevention and treatment evaluation work for 2004, Tuesday, stating that China has been making substantial progress with concrete actions such aspromoting the use of condoms, providing some free antiretroviral therapies and nearly doubling it budget for AIDS to 810 million yuan ($98 million) for 2004.