A great majority of hepatocellular carcinomas come from active cirrhosis developed by chronic hepatitis B. Therefore, chronic hepatitis B should be actively treated in an effort to prevent the progression of lesions. Adjuvant drugs for anti-inflammatory and enzyme lowering have an important adjunctive role in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B, but they are not a substitute for antiviral drugs. The majority of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma develop in the absence of significant disease activity. Every patient who is suitable for antiviral therapy should receive it. The current high number of patients with cirrhosis and liver cancer may be related to the fact that the proportion of hepatitis B patients receiving antiviral therapy in China was very low in the past; we are deeply concerned that the proportion of patients currently receiving antiviral therapy is still very small. The primary prevention of liver cancer is to vaccinate susceptible patients against hepatitis B virus infection and prevent it from the source; the secondary prevention of liver cancer is to provide antiviral treatment to patients who have already developed chronic hepatitis B, so that the virus replication cannot be detected in the serum continuously through treatment.