Securitizing HIV/AIDS: a game changer in state-societal relations in China?

Lo, Catherine Yuk-ping

Numbers of security studies scholars believed that HIV/AIDS is the first infectious disease being securitized by the international institutions and national governments as the abovementioned criteria were all fulfilled in the case of HIV/AIDS [9, [30] [31] [32] . Speech acts concerning HIV/AIDS as a security threat were first identified in a UNSC meeting in January 2000. 10 In July of the same year, the UNSC passed Resolution 1308, acknowledging the urgent need to address HIV/AIDS, which threatens the stability and security if left unchecked [33] . It is perceived that the particular security framing of HIV/AIDS gained acceptance by the national governments (audience of the HIV/AIDS security-threat claim) since 189 countries unanimously adopted and signed the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS in 2001. The urgency of addressing HIV/AIDS problems was reinforced in the special United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) devoted to HIV/AIDS that has taken place every 5 years since 2001 [34] [35] [36] [37] . The abovementioned events are significant because they represented the first time that the UNSC General Assembly devoted an entire session to a single disease, and the first time that the international political authorities framed HIV/ AIDS as a global health threat to national and international security instead of solely as a developmental or public health problem [38] . 11 The 2000 rhetorical act was backed by operational emergency responses in terms of the augmentation of the global HIV/AIDS spending since 2000. The amount was exponentially surged from about US$900 million in 1999 to US$16 billion by 2009; and to an estimated US$19 billion in 2013 [39] . Several HIV/AIDS-related funding agencies and health programs formulated after 2000, also referred to Global Health Initiatives (GHIs), brought in additional monetary resources for HIV/AIDS [40] . 12 Perceiving as the most prominent GHIs, the Global Fund pledges to accelerate the end of the three epidemics, [HIV/]AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria by providing financial support (US$4 billion annually) for low-income countries to respond to the three diseases [41] . Undoubtedly, the introduction of the abovementioned GHIs has brought about unprecedented levels of funding for diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, in countries that have insufficient resources, whether because of poor socio-economic development or lack of political will, to orchestrate appropriate responses to the intractable disease.