AIDS / HIV: April 2006 Archives

By REUTERS | The New York Times
April 20, 2006

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Police in the Chinese financial hub of Shanghai broke up a news conference by a group of haemophiliacs who say they contracted HIV/AIDS through contaminated blood transfusions, an activist said on Thursday. Journalists were detained and police surrounded the hotel where the event was taking place, said Wan Yanhai, the widely respected director of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute of Health Education.

Calls to the Shanghai city government and police were not answered.

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By Howard W. French | The New York Times
April 11, 2006

XINZHUANG, China — This winter, Liu Xianhong's life was changed for the second time by her infection with AIDS.

The first time was seven years ago, when she discovered that she, along with her newborn son, had contracted the disease through an infusion of contaminated blood given to her during childbirth.

Then late last year, her story was publicized by a leading Chinese journalist, turning one woman's quest for compensation into a national cause célèbre for a new class of advocates who are using the country's legal system to fight for social justice.

Ms. Liu's experience, all but unimaginable as recently as two or three years ago, is increasingly common in China, where a once totalitarian system is facing growing pressure from a population that is awakening to the power of independent organization. Uncounted millions of Chinese, from the rich cities of the east to the impoverished countryside, are pushing an inflexible political system for redress over issues from shoddy health care and illegal land seizures to dire pollution and rampant official corruption.

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The Associated Press | The New York Times
April 1, 2006

BEIJING (AP) -- A prominent AIDS activist who accuses Chinese security forces of abducting and holding him for 41 days said Friday he would sue the government for improperly detaining him.

Hu Jia, who was released Tuesday, said it appeared he was taken because he helped spearhead a hunger strike to protest violence against dissidents.

''I can't keep quiet about this,'' Hu said in an interview at a Beijing cafe while plainclothes security agents watched from a distance. ''I must take these actions to file a lawsuit and let them know that the Chinese people will still let their voices be heard.''

Telephones at the Beijing Public Security Bureau, whose officers Hu said took part in the abduction, were not answered Friday.

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