Mayfair Vol 30 No 12 1995

From 1995 on, after our national government became aware that a large number of those selling blood were becoming infected with the AIDS virus, the governmental attitude toward this was to be secretive or to speak only in whispers. Reporters and experts who tried to bring the truth to light were repressed.135

Mayfair Vol 30 No 12 1995

Discrimination is prohibited by articles 2 and 26 of the ICCPR, which guarantees equal rights to all persons: "All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law. In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."180 At its fifty-third meeting in 1995, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights concluded that discrimination on the basis of AIDS or HIV status is prohibited in that it is covered by the term "or other status" in the ICCPR and other instruments.181

These and other charges were outlined in a widely-circulated essay by a pseudonymous AIDS activist, He Aifang.395 According to He, in 1993 Liu Quanxi, director of the provincial health bureau, began to advocate for the development of blood collection stations that could sell plasma extracted from the blood of Henan's people to larger biological products companies, arguing that the industry would economically benefit poor farmers. He alleges that Liu led delegations to the U.S. in 1993 and 1994 to market blood products, which he alleged were free of HIV. The writer alleged that Liu made capital investments in blood collection stations in Henan himself, and directed family members to set up six stations. In 1995-96, He said that medical workers began reporting that some former blood donors were HIV-positive. In 1996, Liu allegedly did his own study of HIV in Henan that showed a majority of persons tested were HIV-positive in regions including some where Liu's family ran blood collection stations. Liu allegedly covered up the report and did not permit it to be published. At the same time, health department and Communist Party officials in Henan applied pressure on outspoken doctors who attempted to get the word out about Henan's epidemic.

45 Dehong Dai Nationality Autonomous Prefecture is one of a number of ethnic "autonomous" regions established in China during the 1950s. The process of ethnic identification and categorization China undertook in the 1950s has been criticized by some social scientists, as has the practice of "autonomy". For more on such regions including Dehong, see Stevan Harrell, ed., Cultural Encounters on China's Ethnic Frontiers (Seattle: University of Washington, 1995).

181 Commission on Human Rights, "The Protection of Human Rights in the Context of Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)," Resolution 1995/44, adopted without a vote, March 3, 1995. 041b061a72