Officially, there were 650,000 people living with HIV in China in 2005. The Chinese government has pledged to keep the total under 1.5 million by 2010. The study argues that China must emphasize non-epidemiological factors as mutually-reinforcing factors sustaining the disease. The fight is entwined with profound economic and social transition. Government and civil society have engaged with the principles and agencies of global HIV/AIDS governance. But HIV intersects with normative regimes addressing issues of humane governance in the widest socio-economic and political sense. Based upon primary and secondary research, the study reviews the evidence of the HIV/AIDS challenge facing China, considers the nature and quality of the national response, and evaluates the relationship of global and national regimes.