After denying for years that it had a problem, China last week acknowledged the HIV-AIDS epidemic that is sweeping that country. But the relief that greeted this long-overdue candor was tempered by Beijing's admission that it has also detained the country's most outspoken AIDS advocate -- for exposing the government's attempt to cover up the problem. China is asking the international community for help in dealing with this horrible disease. There should be no delay in responding with aid and assistance, but the world should demand that Beijing take the lead in efforts to fight the epidemic.

For years, Beijing denied that HIV-AIDS was a health problem in China. Official Chinese data showed that in 2001, 30,736 people had the HIV virus that leads to AIDS, 1,594 had full-blown AIDS and 684 people had died from illnesses related to the disease. In reality, the numbers are much greater. According to a recent U.N. report, between 800,000 and 1.5 million people carry the HIV virus; with the infection growing at some 30 percent a year, the figure could reach 10 million by 2010. The report concludes that China is "on the verge of a catastrophe that could result in unimaginable suffering, economic loss and social devastation." "It's more than a disease . . . it's a disaster," said the chairwoman of the U.N. Theme Group on HIV/AIDS in China, which prepared the study.

Beijing last week conceded that it had underestimated the threat, and raised its estimate of the number of people with the infection to 1 million, implicitly endorsing the U.N. study -- and its worrisome conclusions. It is unclear what triggered the shift in the Chinese position. There is speculation that Beijing's application for a $90 million grant to the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria requires it to show good-faith efforts to fight the disease. Reportedly, China's first request for aid was denied because of the government's refusal to face up to the scale of the problem. This time, however, government officials are being more forthright.