AIDS Activist Resigns From Civil Society Organization, Cites Government Pressure

Citing government pressure, prominent Chinese AIDS activist Hu Jia resigned from Loving Source, an AIDS organization he helped found in 2003 to assist the orphans of AIDS victims, according to a February 7 Reuters report. Hu said, "I left to avoid trouble for Loving Source."

Hu indicated that he received a letter from an international donor organization retracting its decision to provide Loving Source with 100,000 yuan (US $12,000) in funds, according to a February 7 Voice of America (VOA) report (in Chinese). According to Hu, the letter noted that Hu's involvement in human rights work had "led to pressure" on the international donor, and created concerns that the donor's funding of Hu's projects might jeopardize their other projects in China. During the fall of 2005, Chinese public security officers detained Hu for attempting to deliver a petition to Vice Premier Wu Yi at an AIDS conference in Henan province. State security officers also beat Hu and placed him under house arrest for 14 days during visits by top United Nations and European Union officials.

Hu said that the Chinese government "is using soft methods to narrow the space NGOs can exist in. The authorities are worried a civil society would bring about a strong force that challenges its rule." Chinese authorities use a restrictive regulatory environment to limit the development of an independent civil society. For more information, see section V(a) of the Commission's 2005 Annual Report, on the Development of Civil Society. In the spring of 2005, Chinese authorities increased pressure on social science research centers registered as for-profit companies and therefore operating outside of regular channels of official control. Authorities required such centers to re-register with the Ministry of Civil Affairs or be closed.

Hu said that the reforms last year have limited the ability of Chinese civil society organizations to obtain funding from foreign organizations. According to VOA, Hu said that "They [the Chinese government] are very adept. They know how to go after you - cut off your sources of funding. The so-called 'regularization' in April of last year made all the centers change their names. Before, they were all called 'research institutes' and all foreign organizations could immediately recognize that these were civil society groups. Now they have had their names changed to 'cultural transmission and information centers' and these names look more like corporate enterprises, which has increased the difficulty of obtaining foreign funding."