July 30, 2003

Mr. Wen Jiabao
Premier of the People’s Republic of China
State Council
9 Xihuangchenggen beijie
Beijing, 100032
People's Republic of China

Ms. Wu Yi
Minister of Public Health of the People’s Republic of China
Ministry of Health
1 Xizhimenwai
Xicheng District
Beijing, 100044
People's Republic of China

Your Excellency and Minister Wu:

As physicians, scholars and public health experts, we were gravely concerned to learn of the reported beating and arrests of villagers with HIV/AIDS by local police in Henan province last month.

The harassment of people with HIV/AIDS and their advocates diminishes China's ability to halt its AIDS epidemic, which is advancing rapidly and threatens to rival the epidemics in Africa and India in the near future. It is urgent that China take effective, science-based treatment and prevention measures, such as those recommended by the World Health Organization.

At the same time, we are encouraged to learn that the Central Government is working to develop an AIDS plan that will provide ARV treatment for tens of thousands of people, and that 3,000 people in a pilot project in Henan are already receiving ARV treatment. We applaud and support these efforts.

In solidarity with people with HIV/AIDS in China, we respectfully make these requests, which were first raised by the Henan farmers:

1. Make antiretroviral medical treatment immediately available to all people with AIDS in Henan.

2. Offer free education and care for orphans and children of HIV-positive parents in Henan. This is not yet available for many affected children.

3. Investigate the alleged misuse of AIDS funds by Henan clinics and hospitals, and hold those responsible accountable.

4. Reduce the taxation of crops that the Henan government requires from farmers after harvest. Currently, farmers must contribute so much to the government that some families affected by HIV/AIDS are starving.

5. Establish AIDS medical clinics throughout Henan, including in Xiongqiao village.

As public health experts and scholars concerned about the situation of people with AIDS in China, we additionally address these respectful requests to you:

1. Provide access to ARV treatment, treatment education, and care for all people living with HIV/AIDS in China and offer science-based prevention education to all persons at high risk of contracting HIV.

2. Immediately and unconditionally release the seven people still detained in connection with these attacks. Beijing must stop the harassment, beating, and detention of people with HIV/AIDS and AIDS advocates by local police.

3. Establish a State Council committee to investigate Henan province's handling of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and hold those responsible accountable.

4. Disclose accurate AIDS epidemiological information from the Ministry of Health, including the numbers of people who are infected with HIV and an accurate list of the counties and villages affected by HIV/AIDS.

We look forward to your reply, and we support your efforts to provide AIDS prevention and treatment for Chinese citizens.

Respectfully,

Marcus Conant, MD
UCSF Medical Center
San Francisco, CA USA

Paul Volberding, MD
Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine
University of California San Francisco
San Francisco, CA USA

Geoffrey A. Weinberg, M.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Pediatric HIV Program
University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry
Rochester, NY USA

Judith Currier , M.D., M.Sc.
Associate Professor of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles
Center for AIDS Research and Education
Los Angeles, CA USA

Janet Hines, MD,
Assistant Professor of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine
Philadelphia, PA USA

John P. Moore Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Weill Cornell Medical College
Ithaca, NY USA

Josh Ruxin
Assistant Clinical Professor of Public Health
Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University
New York, NY USA

Donna J. Barry NP MPH
Partners In Health
Program in Infectious Disease & Social Change
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA USA

Carole D. Mitnick, Sc.D.
Instructor
Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change
Department of Social Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA USA

Professor Brook K. Baker
Northeastern University
School of Law
Boston, MA USA

Edward Friedman, Ph.D.
Professor of Chinese Politics
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Madison, WI USA

Dr. Stephen Green
Head of Asia Programme
The Royal Institute of International Affairs
London
United Kingdom

Lili Selden, Assistant Professor
Dept. of East Asian Languages and
Literatures, University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana USA

Shawn Shieh, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY USA

Dr. Stuart F. Chen-Hayes
Professor and Coordinator, Counselor Education program and President,
Counselors for Social Justice
Lehman College of the City University of New York
New York, NY USA

Douglas Kimmel, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology
City College, CUNY
New York, NY USA

Virginia Cornue, PhD.
Social scientist and teacher
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick, NJ USA

Xiaorong Li
Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy
University of Maryland
College Park, MD USA

Nicholas A. Kaldis
Assistant Professor of Chinese Cinema, Language, & Literature
G.R.E.A.L. Department
Binghamton University
Binghamton, NY USA

Thomas P. Bernstein
Professor of Political Science
Columbia University
New York, NY USA

Anita Chan
Senior Research Associate
Contemporary China Centre
Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies
Australian National University
Canberra Australia

Sara Davis, Ph.D.
Visiting scholar
Columbia University
New York, NY USA

Daniel C. Esty
Director of Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy
Yale University
New Haven, CT USA

Mobo C.F. Gao
Director, Asian Center
University of Tasmania
Australia

Tom Grunfeld
SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, History
Empire State College
State University of New York
NY USA

Sandra Teresa Hyde
Assistant Professor of Medical Anthropology
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Andre Laliberte
Departement de science politique
Universite du Quebec a Montreal
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Perry Link
Professor of East Asian Studies
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ USA

Carole McGranahan
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO USA

Andrew Nathan
Professor of Political Science
Columbia University
New York, NY USA

Ravi Arvind Palat
Associate Professor of Sociology
State University of New York at Binghamton
Binghamton, NY USA

Mark Selden
Professor of Political Science
Cornell University
New York, NY USA

James D. Seymour
Senior Research Scholar
Columbia University
New York, NY USA

Dorothy Solinger
Professor, School of Social Sciences
University of California
Irvine, CA USA

Jonathan Unger
Contemporary China Centre
Australian National University
Canberra, Australia

Byron S.J. Weng
Dept. of Public Policy and Administration
National Chi Nan University
Taiwan, ROC

Michael Yahuda
Professor of International Relations
London School of Economics & Political Science
London, UK

Peter Zarrow
Associate Research Fellow
Institute of Modern History
Academia Sinica
Taipei, Taiwan ROC

David Wasserman
Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy
Maryland School of Public Affairs
University of Maryland
College Park, MD USA

Jennifer Cohn
4th Year Medical Student
Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA USA

Kenneth Vail, M.P.H., M.A.
Consultant,
San Ramon, CA USA