We support
China in its effort to combat AIDS, a struggle that has confronted
nearly every country in the world. We look forward to posting
good news about China's victories-- for instance, they are taking on
multinational drug companies to gain access to AIDS treatment for their
citizens. But many problems remain. For example, Central Government
officials continue to allow the harrassment and detention of respected
health experts who advocate sound, science-based AIDS policies in
China. China cannot win the fight against AIDS if it persecutes its
public health experts.
Below are several past bulletins that reflect this problem and the work
of the AIDS Policy Project to combat it. Our work continues, both in
public and in private.
December
10 ,
2009
Renowned Chinese AIDS and human rights advocate Hu Jia, vilified in the Chinese
press but winner of the Sakharov Prize for Human Rights, remains in prison.
Hu, who suffers from hepatitis, has been imprisoned for 2 years.
See press
release
Read the latest posts from his wife
Zeng Jinyan's blog.
November 27, 2006
Renowned Chinese AIDS advocate Dr. Wan Yanhai, detained by police in
Beijing on Friday, November 24, was released November 27th.
November 25, 2006:
No word from Wan as of Sunday, November 26 at 12 noon EST
Chinese activists proceeding with caution
Read
press release
from China Rights Defenders
Aizhi Action in Beijing has released a statement on Dr. Wan's
detention; read here
March 28, 2006
Chinese AIDS Activist Hu Jia, focus of an international campaign, has
been freed by the Chinese government.
March 22, 2006:
Organized by the AIDS Policy Project as part of its international
campaign to free Hu Jia, activists from dozens of organizations
protested simultaneously at Chinese embassies and consulates in
Washington, DC, New York, and Paris.
Photos of the Actions in DC, NYC and Paris (more
photos and updates to come):
PRESS
RELEASE
PARIS
WASHINGTON,
DC
NEW YORK
MARCH 22, 2006
READ LETTER TO CHINESE
PRESIDENT HU: RELEASE HU
JIA, OTHER DISSIDENTS
March, 2006:
At least 12 Chinese activists who have been
organizing and participating in a symbolic, rolling hunger strike
across China that began on February 4 have been detained, some for
several weeks. The hunger strikers were protesting government
repression of activists and the Chinese press. The AIDS Policy Project
is monitoring this situation closely. Readers interested in working to
help these activists should contact the AIDS Policy Project at
aidspolicyproject@hotmail.com.
It has been reported that Gao Zhisheng, a
prominent defense lawyer, launched the hunger-strike to protest recent
beatings and detentions of human rights activists and their defense
lawyers. Showing their solidarity, dozens of supporters from various
parts of China have quickly joined the relay hunger-strike in turn.
Since early February, Mr. Gao has been kept under house arrest and
subject to intense police surveillance.
Multiple reports describe the detention and
abduction of several of those who have participated in or supported the
hunger-strike, including the following:
Qi Zhiyong, a pro-democracy activist, went
missing at around 11pm on February 15. He reportedly sent a text
message to friends at the time saying that he was being kidnapped.
HIV/AIDS activist Hu Jia, who was closely
followed by police until he disappeared on February 16. Police have
repeatedly refused to give his wife information about his detention.
Zhao Xin, executive director of the
Empowerment and Rights Institute, a Chinese human rights NGO, has been
detained in Yunnan. His family was given no formal notice of his
detention, but police warned his father not to tell anyone about his
detention.
Yu Zhijian, a pro-democracy activist who
was prominent in the 1989 demonstrations, joined the hunger strike; he
has been charged with subversion.
Artist and activist Yan Zhengxue was taken
away by police on February 12, after he met with Gao Zhisheng.
Mao Hengfeng, a Shanghai-based activist,
who was detained by police on February 13. The police reportedly
refused to disclose to her husband where she was being detained.
Shanghai housing rights activist Chen
Xiaoming was detained on February 16 by police, who cited his
participation in the hunger strike.
Wen Haibo and Ma Wendu, assistants to Gao
Zhisheng, who were reportedly detained on February 16 and interrogated
for 48 and 20 hours respectively being released.
Another assistant, Ouyang Xiaorong, a
computer software programmer who went to Beijing to assist Gao
Zhisheng, was reportedly detained at the same time.
Ma Yalian was detained on February 15 in
Shanghai.
In Guangxi, lawyer Yang Zhaixin has been
placed under house arrest.
Finally, hunger strike organizer Gao
Zhisheng was detained by police on March 4; he remains in police
custody.
We are also concerned about reports from
many regions of the country of the beatings, intimidation, and
harassment of rights defenders and supporters of the protest.
AIDS ACTIVIST AND ORPHAN ADVOCATE LI DAN
BEATEN, DETAINED, RELEASED, BY CHINESE POLICE AUGUST 10, 2004
AUGUST 12 STATEMENT FROM THE AIDS POLICY PROJECT: Henan officials have
beaten and imprisoned Li Dan, a 26 year-old AIDS activist whose only
crime is trying to help children whose parents have died of AIDS--the
same children that the Chinese government is neglecting. The Central
Government has turned a blind eye to the situation, but they have a
legal and moral obligation to protect the rights of AIDS activists and
institute a responsible plan to combat China's exploding AIDS epidemic.
The AIDS Policy Project holds the Central Government responsible for Li
Dan's beating and detention.
JULY, 2004:
AT THE BANGKOK AIDS CONFERENCE, ACTIVISTS DELIVER AN INTERNATIONAL
PETITION TO CHINESE GOVERNMENT.
Update on the Henan attacks from 2003 and current
information about ongoing police intimidation of AIDS activists in
China.
CLICK HERE TO READ SOLIDARITY
LETTER FROM WELL-KNOWN AIDS PHYSICIANS AND CHINA SCHOLARS
In Spring 2003, local Chinese officials hired hundreds of thugs who
attacked Xiongqiao Village, a Henan Province "AIDS village," in the
middle of the night, terrorizing hundreds of people. They beat
families, smashed their belongings, and threw a group of villagers in
jail. The arrests were played on Chinese TV for a week, to make an
example of the villagers and send a warning to sympathizers. The
villagers, some of whom are HIV-positive, were organized AIDS
activists, and they had staged protests demanding AIDS treatment for
their families and care and education for their children. Their case
was brought to the attention of the world through internationally
respected Chinese AIDS activists.
In response, The AIDS Policy Project organized a letter writing
campaign to free them; we faxed hundreds of letters to the Chinese
Embassy in Washington, shutting down its fax machines for a day. Our
organization joined with human rights groups and China experts to draft
a special sign-on letter; the AIDS Policy Project collected the
signatures of well-known American AIDS doctors while China experts
gathered the signatures of respected China scholars worldwide. The
letter actually took up the demands of the farmers and called for their
release. A link to the letter is at left under "Update: China.
Five of the villager-activists were released immediately after this
outcry, which we publicized through articles and editorials in The New
York Times, Newsday, South China Morning Post, and many other outlets.
Human rights activists wrote an important report on AIDS in China and
did a tremendous job parlaying our letters and the ensuing headlines
into pressure from the US and European governments to release these
people.
We have just learned that all the remaining detainees (the original
group was 17) were released, after being fined, before the Chinese new
year. The fines, in the context of the farmers' incomes, are ruinous,
and Chinese activists are trying to raise money (about $7,000) to aid
the families. One farmer is still suffering from a badly injured leg
which he received after escaping from arrest by jumping out of a moving
car.
China's response to this protest by villagers--violent attacks by Henan
officals and indifference from the Central Government-- publicized
Henan's criminal AIDS record all over the world.
October 20, 2003: MA SHIWEN IS FREE
Ma Shiwen was released by the authorities
on October 18. In addition to his arrest (and he has been detained
twice for the same reason--the first time he was in jail for a month)
Ma's family has faced a year of harrassment and intimidation. His
release coincided with the award of $98 million to China by the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.
The US government, Human Rights Watch, and AIDS activists (among
others) have been advocating for Ma.
In reponse to Ma's detention and after extended consultation with
allies, the AIDS Policy Project publicly released a secret document to
the Chinese and international press that officials used as a pretext to
detain Ma. The document implicates Henan offiicals in the ill treatment
of people with AIDS in that province.
October 11, 2003
A health official in the corrupt health department of Henan Province in
Central China was arrested by authorities in April, 2003, though his
case has just come to light. His name is Ma Shiwen and he is accused of
sharing documents with an NGO that detail Henan's horrific AIDS
epidemic, a charge he denies.
The AIDS epidemic in Henan Province, which some estimate at 1 million
people, was caused by Henan officials themselves who operated blood
selling schemes using unsafe equipment and methods.
Ma Shiwen's situation is receiving attention just days before the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria will announce whether it will
award China $98 million over five years to combat AIDS and only weeks
after a speech by China's duputy Health Minister at the United Nations
Special Session on AIDS in which he stated that there are only 840,000
people with AIDS in China, a number widely considered to be a gross
underestimate (some experts put the number at four to five million).
Henan Province is known for both violence against people with AIDS--see
the New York Times article below--and widespread graft of foreign aid
sent to the province. As one activist put it, "Government officials in
rich provinces have one car. In Henan, a very poor province, they have
five-- paid for with health grants.” Activists are asking the Global
Fund to detail exactly how it plans to account for any Global Fund
money sent to China.
