Students in Peking University are talking about the
AIDS-prevention activity.
Elite Beijing University is calling off plans to hand out free condoms next
week for World AIDS Day, saying it shouldn't be done so openly on campus.
The
school was one of 34 Beijing universities where free condoms were to be handed
out, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday.
But the university said
it was "inappropriate to hand out free condoms openly on campus," especially as
planned in front of its landmark auditorium, the report said.
"We should put
more emphasis on guiding college students not to have pre-marriage sex. Condom
use only serves as a secondary method for educating those who can't control
themselves," the head of the university hospital, Zhou Baohua, was quoted as
saying.
Instead, condoms will be placed in campus clinics where students can
request them, Zhou said.
University officials said the condom distribution
had not been approved by the university administration in a society where
premarriage sex is frowned upon.
"College authorities might think the handout
will stir up unnecessary disputes, as the campus is considered pure," said Dr
Sun Peiyuan, one of the organizers of the event.
The United Nations has
warned the number of AIDS victims in China could rise to 10 million by 2010
unless it takes serious steps to educate the public and fight the
epidemic.
Sun said students with HIV had been found at Beijing's universities
since 2000.
Beijing University was among the first Chinese universities to
sell condoms from vending machines on campus.