Fighting AIDS in Asia -- In China, the Release of a Jailed Activist Holds Promise

"...Conventional wisdom had it that the Chinese AIDS activist [Dr. Wan Yanhai] apprehended in August and later charged with disseminating state secrets, wouldn't be freed until at least late October, when Chinese President Jiang Zemin was scheduled to visit President Bush in Crawford, Texas.

"...Yet by giving Mr. Wan his humanitarian parole on Sept. 20, a date associated with no significant international diplomatic events, the Chinese did something dramatic and remarkably promising: They announced in their special way that advocating and working on the AIDS issue in the People's Republic is not a sin on par with activism related to Taiwan, Tibet, or the Falun Gong.

"That's a huge distinction, and one that was not at all clear before Mr. Wan's release. ...Indeed, China has long treated AIDS as a public relations problem, not a public health fiasco, and went to great lengths to keep it from the Western media. ...Thus, throwing Mr. Wan in the dungeon last summer appeared disturbingly consistent and seemed to open a new, more severe era.

"...But then the international AIDS community went berserk, something the Chinese could not have anticipated. The usual legions from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights in China were joined by angry rebukes from quarters as varied as the United Nations and ACT UP.

"Arresting Mr. Wan, ostensibly for releasing a classified government document that contained information everybody already knew, was about to jeopardize China's applications for millions of dollars in international aid to cope with its pandemic.

"So the Chinese let him go after forcing Mr. Wan to admit he had misbehaved. But he wasn't forced to take down his Web site or disband his organization, even though the government banned it this summer.

"...And while Mr. Wan's involuntary visit with the state security apparatus couldn't have been much fun, those four weeks accomplished as much to raise awareness of the Chinese AIDS problem as everything Mr. Wan did for the prior eight years. China inadvertently gave him global stardom, and it will be fascinating to see what he does with it."

Steve Friess, a freelance reporter based in Beijing in 2001, now lives in Las Vegas.

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