Closed School, Closed Minds

China's Henan province seems still in denial about its AIDS problem
BY HANNAH BEECH | SHANGHAI

China may finally be coming clean about its burgeoning AIDS problem, but health officials in the ravaged province of Henan are still behaving as if the epidemic were a dirty secret. Last month, more than 100 armed police stormed the NGO-run Orchid Orphan School in the city of Shangqiu, a boarding school for AIDS orphans (some of whom are HIV-positive), and whisked the students away on a truck. Two volunteers were detained for "causing social disorder." The local health bureau says the school was closed because it never applied for an operating license. But school founder Li Dan says he applied repeatedly. He suspects the school was shuttered because it was getting publicity. "The minds of the local Henan officials are very closed," says Wan Yanhai, a Beijing AIDS activist. "Their first impulse is to suppress information."

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