Among the campaign of "1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005" nominees, 108 Chinese women, including the grassroots anti-AIDS heroine Gao Yaojie, were listed, a local newspaper reported.

The campaign, supported by the Swiss Peace Foundation, vowed to select 1,000 grassroots women for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize to tell their stories and highlight their innovative and enduring efforts in achieving a more holistic sense of "peace," according to the campaign's regional coordinator Hong Kong-based Lingnan University.

Among the 108 nominated women, 81 are from the Chinese mainland, 18 are from Taiwan and nine are from Hong Kong, the Dahe Daily, a local newspaper in central China's Henan Province said.

Prof. Gao Yaojie, a noted woman doctor from central China's Henan Province who has dedicated herself to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, was also on the list.

"I don't care whether I finally get the prize, I just want more people to be involved in the anti-AIDS campaign," Prof. Gao was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Besides Prof. Gao, the nurse Zhang Jihui, who excelled in China's 2003 fight against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in south China's Guangdong Province, was also nominated.

According to the ratio of population throughout the world, China and Mongolia should count for about 100 women nominees, and in order to comply with the nomination rules of the Nobel Prize Committee, the campaign will finally draw out three women. The selected ones will be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2005)