Washington Post Profiles Chinese Government's Response to AIDS Epidemic

The Washington Post today in a cover story highlights the Chinese government's response to the AIDS epidemic, including police response to AIDS-related protests (Pan, Washington Post, 8/18). In one incident, hundreds of police officers in June raided the Chinese village of Xiongqiao in the rural province of Henan, moving through homes, physically abusing residents and arresting 13 people in what villagers said was a response to recent protests calling for better access to medical care, including HIV/AIDS treatment (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 8/6). The raid has "prompted outrage" among Chinese and foreign AIDS advocates, who have called on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to withhold funding unless the government enacts laws ensuring protection for advocates and monitoring how the aid money is spent (Washington Post, 8/18). The complete article is available online.

Additional information on AIDS in China is available online from kaisernetwork.org's Issue Spotlight on AIDS.

Back to other news for August 18, 2003