Propaganda coming from the regime also clouds the issue. For example, a number of the alleged recovered AIDS patients touted by the media were not in fact AIDS sufferers to begin with. “Sixteen years have passed. It is estimated that there are 10 million AIDS patients in China, but Chinese authorities have been covering it up well,” she says. “In the photo where Wen Jiabao shakes hands with an AIDS patient, that ‘patient’ was actually an actor.”
UNAIDS, the UN AIDS program in China, says only 700,000 are infected.
Bluntening efforts to improve the lot of AIDS sufferers is also corruption. Fake medicines abound since officials can easily be bribed, and funds meant to go to AIDS relief are embezzled.
Gao, formerly a professor at the Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, has visited hundreds of villages across over a dozen provinces, treating thousands of AIDS patients.
This she did for over 13 years, conducting door-to-door investigations paid for with the money she got from human rights awards. These include the United Nations Jonathan Mann award for global health and human rights, as well as the Ramon Magsaysay Award, known as Asia’s Nobel Prize. She estimates that she has spent about one million yuan (approximately US$14,972) this way.
Despite receiving no assistance from authorities, and spending her own money for travel costs, some patients she visited would still thank the Communist Party. Once when she gave medicine to a patient in 2000, the patient asked her if she was sent by Chairman Mao.
Later, it became dangerous for her to visit villages. With a 500 yuan (US$75) price on her head she constantly risked being turned in. One day, she went to a village with Hong Kong banker and Founder of the Chi Heng Foundation, Chung To, but had to immediately leave only narrowly escaping from more than 30 police and a group of militia.
She said in the end she became afraid of being nominated for awards, and was worried about being again placed under house arrest. She saw as a warning the arrest of Tan Zuoren, an environmental activist from Sichuan, and in August 2008 left China.
Gao says the Chinese regime has an undeniable responsibility for the extent of the epidemic in China, and that the international community should pay more attention.
Gao’s first book, China’s AIDS Plague: 10,000 Letters was initially published in China in 2004. After initially receiving accolades the book was soon banned, and Gao harassed. A revised version was published in Hong Kong in 2009.
UNAIDS, the UN AIDS program in China, says only 700,000 are infected.
Bluntening efforts to improve the lot of AIDS sufferers is also corruption. Fake medicines abound since officials can easily be bribed, and funds meant to go to AIDS relief are embezzled.
Gao, formerly a professor at the Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, has visited hundreds of villages across over a dozen provinces, treating thousands of AIDS patients.
This she did for over 13 years, conducting door-to-door investigations paid for with the money she got from human rights awards. These include the United Nations Jonathan Mann award for global health and human rights, as well as the Ramon Magsaysay Award, known as Asia’s Nobel Prize. She estimates that she has spent about one million yuan (approximately US$14,972) this way.
Despite receiving no assistance from authorities, and spending her own money for travel costs, some patients she visited would still thank the Communist Party. Once when she gave medicine to a patient in 2000, the patient asked her if she was sent by Chairman Mao.
Later, it became dangerous for her to visit villages. With a 500 yuan (US$75) price on her head she constantly risked being turned in. One day, she went to a village with Hong Kong banker and Founder of the Chi Heng Foundation, Chung To, but had to immediately leave only narrowly escaping from more than 30 police and a group of militia.
She said in the end she became afraid of being nominated for awards, and was worried about being again placed under house arrest. She saw as a warning the arrest of Tan Zuoren, an environmental activist from Sichuan, and in August 2008 left China.
Gao says the Chinese regime has an undeniable responsibility for the extent of the epidemic in China, and that the international community should pay more attention.
Gao’s first book, China’s AIDS Plague: 10,000 Letters was initially published in China in 2004. After initially receiving accolades the book was soon banned, and Gao harassed. A revised version was published in Hong Kong in 2009.
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