Spread of AIDS in Rural China Ignites Protests

As China's central government takes steps to address its growing AIDS crisis, continuing suppression of protesting villagers with HIV is becoming increasingly difficult. The government media have also begun to report more on the issue.

In late November, as China marked its first World AIDS Day in Beijing, officials in Suixian County detained poor farmers wasting away from AIDS, as well as Chinese journalists who had come to interview them. At the height of the standoff, officials in Chengguan township held three journalists and 11 peasants infected with HIV in a government guest house and in the township's headquarters.

"We weren't allowed in, so we just stood there shouting," recalled Xie Yan, 35, a mother of three whose husband died this spring and who has been told she will be dead in two years. "We screamed: 'People are dying and you do nothing but detain them,' and 'What sort of officials are you?'"

In some villages more than half of the adults are believed to be infected. Blood buying schemes geared toward collecting plasma and replacing red blood cells into the donors had disastrous effects in Henan province, with at least a million infected, according to Chinese experts. A majority of adults in Donngguan South sold blood to collectors from 1994-1997. In 1997 local health officials suddenly advised villagers to stop selling blood, giving no explanation. In a village of 600 adults, 200 are now showing serious symptoms of AIDS. At least 14 young people have died since spring.

Protests have begun in Suixian County, putting it on the map and bringing in curious journalists. A crew from an influential government television program on women's issues called "Half the Sky" met with some of the villagers, only to find themselves trailed by plainclothes police officers. When they tried to leave the county, they were detained and held for two days. A second group of journalists, from smaller newspapers, spent days avoiding pursuing police. Their hotels and the farmers' homes searched in an unsuccessful attempt to find them.

Back to other CDC news for December 11, 2001

Previous Updates