Authorities Restrict HIV/AIDS Activism While the Epidemic Spreads

Although the Chinese government has developed an anti-AIDS policy framework, civil society engagement remains a major challenge in the fight against the epidemic, according to an October 8 article written by the Executive Director of the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) published in the state-run China Daily. As of October 2007, an estimated 700,000 new HIV infections reportedly had occurred in China since 2006, representing an 8-percent increase, according to Chinese and UN official statistics cited in the scientific journal Nature's new study (subscription required) released on October 2, 2008. Among those newly infected, the study reported that men who have sex with men and women in general had the highest rate of growth.

The Chinese government restricts HIV/AIDS activism through frequent harassment and crackdowns on HIV/AIDS advocates and non-governmental organization (NGO) Web sites. (See a previous Congressional-Executive Commission on China analysis for more information.) Even in cases where infections resulted from official malfeasance, local officials use extra-legal detention or reeducation through labor to prevent people living with HIV/AIDS from seeking government assistance or using official grievance procedures. (See Section II-Public Health and Section III-Access to Justice-Citizen Petitioning in the CECC's 2008 Annual Report for more information.) An October 14 Aizhixing survey (subscription required) of 106 people living with HIV/AIDS included the following findings:

• Almost all of those who sought some form of redress considered filing lawsuits against the hospitals from which they received HIV-infected blood, but only 73.6 percent actually did. Petitioners, those who used the official "Letters and Visits" (xinfang or shangfang) system, cited insufficient financial means, lack of confidence in the court system, or the court's refusal to accept their application to file lawsuit as reasons for not bringing suit.
• Approximately 80 percent of the petitioners indicated that officials had intercepted their visits to authorities and either forced them to return to their homes, subjected them to extra-legal detention in hotels or police stations, or placed them under house arrest. Threats against petitioners or their families, blocking meetings with officials, and the imposition of reeducation through labor sentences were also reported.
• Nearly one quarter of the petitioners who took their petitions to higher-level government offices through official grievance procedures reported receiving compensation.
• HIV/AIDS patients who have faced government harassment for their seeking redress include, for example:
• Li Xige, Henan province: Contracted HIV/AIDS through a blood transfusion when giving birth in 1995. Li's two daughters were also infected with HIV, one of whom died in 2004. Since 2005, the Henan government has detained or harassed Li for petitioning the government for compensation. According to an October 6 Radio Free Asia report, the government resumed 24-hour surveillance of Li in September.
• Zhu Bingjin, Jilin province: Contracted HIV/AIDS while selling his blood during the early 1990s. Zhu organized others who were infected through selling blood to express their grievances and seek redress from the blood collection station. According to the survey, authorities have placed Zhu under house arrest twice since 2003, sentenced him to one year of "reeducation through labor," and placed him under administrative detention for 35 days for his petitioning activities.

For more information on the Chinese government's restrictions on HIV/AIDS activism, see the CECC's previous analysis, China Continues to Crack Down on HIV/AIDS Web Sites and Activists, and the CECC 2008 Annual Report, Section III-Civil Society and Section II-Public Health.