'Mother Peng' devoted to fight against HIV/AIDS

First Lady diplomacy - A feminine display of 'soft power'

Fashionable First Ladies: Peng Liyuan vs. Michelle Obama

Zhang said she was inspired by Peng's care and affection to redouble her own efforts to help children.

"Her efforts will surely bring more public attention and care to the sufferers and deal a blow to existing social stigmas and discrimination," Zhang said.

At the 2006 World AIDS Conference, Peng characterized the children most in need of the public's care and support as innocent victims.

"Many of them got the virus directly from their mothers, and we should treat them affectionately and equally, playing and making friends with them as we do with healthy children," she said.

To learn more about the affected children's living conditions, Peng began making regular visits to areas hit hard by the disease, including Yunnan and Henan provinces.

An HIV/AIDS official of the top health authority, who didn't want to be named, said Peng mostly visited children in poor villages and continued to learn more about the disease and its treatment. "Her visits helped improve local HIV/AIDS intervention and treatment efforts," he said.

Zhang agreed. "Peng's efforts prompted me to stick to my course of helping children despite difficulty," she said. "We all see hope."

Deng Guosheng, director of Tsinghua University's NGO Research Center, said that many countries' first ladies devote time to philanthropic and charitable causes. "It's a wonderful thing for the first ladies to mobilize social resources to solve social problems," he said.

Deng added that the first ladies of China and the US are both enthusiastic about promoting public awareness of healthy lifestyles.

"I think philanthropy can be one of the interesting topics the first ladies can share with each other to deepen their friendship," he said.

He Dan contributed to this story.