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(Global News, No. GL01-012)
Friday, January 26, 2001
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ISSN 1024-9117
Table of Contents # of Lines
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1. News Brief (4 Items) ................................................. 62
2. Beijing Offers Goodwill Gesture to Taipei ............................ 37
3. Taipei's Unofficial Envoy to Hong Kong Granted Visa .................. 33
4. Former Taiwan Aides Grilled on Secret Mainland Discussions ........... 33
5. Revealing "Blood Wound" of Spread of HIV AIDS in Henan Province ..... 561
6. What's in January 26th's Hua Xia Wen Zhai #513 (cm0101d) ............ 36
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1. News Brief (4 Items) ................................................. 62
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(1) Police in Action After Public Suicide on Tiananmen Square
(2) Dutch Police Arrest One More Suspect on Dover Stowaway Case
(3) LEE Kuan Yew Not to Go Between Beijing and Taipei
(4) Russia to Take Tough Stance on Disputed Border Island
(1) Police in Action After Public Suicide on Tiananmen Square
[CND, 01/25/01] Police in Beijing have stepped up their operation of
cracking down protests by the outlawed Falun Gong members after five
protesters set fire to themselves at the Tiananmen Square on Tuesday, the
eve of Chinese Lunar New Year, the biggest holiday of the nation, AFP
reported Wednesday.
Thousands of uniformed and plain-clothed policemen have been checking
people and breaking sporadic protests on the square in order to prevent
any large protest similar to the one of last year attended by thousands of
members.
But the Falun Gong organization in the United States said that the five
people in the suicide attempts are not Falun Gong practitioners because
Falun Gong is firmly against suicide or violence. The organization accused
Chinese authorities of using the suicide as a tactic to distort the image
of Falun Gong. (Lisa BU, YIN De An)
____ ____ ____
(2) Dutch Police Arrest One More Suspect on Dover Stowaway Case
[CND, 01/25/01] The Dutch police have made another arrest on Sunday in the
investigation of the Dover human trafficking case, in which 58 Chinese
illegal immigrants suffocated in a truck on their way to Great Britain
last year, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
The police refused to give more details about the 36-year old detainee,
who is suspected to be the leader of the criminal gang involved in human
smuggling.
So far, seven people have been arrested. Most of them will be tried in
March for manslaughter, smuggling, and counterfeiting. The Dutch driver of
the truck, Perry Wacker, will be tried in the United Kingdom. (Kenneth
XIAN, WU Yiyi)
____ ____ ____
(3) LEE Kuan Yew Not to Go Between Beijing and Taipei
[CND, 01/25/01] Singapore's elder statesman LEE Kuan Yew said on Monday
that he is not going to serve as a mediator between Beijing and Taipei as
a "mediator", AP reported on Wednesday.
Lee, credited with arranging a historic 1993 meeting between envoys from
Beijing and Taipei, said "China has made it clear that it wants outsiders
to leave this problem to Taiwanese and themselves". (Jian-Min LI, WU Yiyi)
____ ____ ____
(4) Russia to Take Tough Stance on Disputed Border Island
[CND, 01/25/01] Viktor Ishayev, the Russian governor of Khabarovsk region,
refused to consider joint Russian-Chinese development on the Big Ussuri
Island, a disputed island in eastern Siberia, the Associated Press
reported Wednesday.
The Big Ussuri Island lies on the Amur River, which divides China and
Russia. The Island is separated from the Chinese mainland by a shallow
branch of the Amur River.
According the report, the Russian governor claimed that they found
evidence of Russian occupancy of the island but no proof of Chinese
occupancy. He proposed to solve the dispute by deepening the shallow
river between the Big Ussuri Island and the Chinese mainland. He also
proposed to make the island a tax-free zone.
The island dispute is among the few border disputes left between China and
Russia. (Shiji SHEN, WU Yiyi)
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2. Beijing Offers Goodwill Gesture to Taipei ............................ 37
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[CND, 01/25/01] A senior mainland official used some unusual conciliatory
words to appeal to independent advocates in Taiwan to abandon their
separatist stance, the Hong Kong iMail reported on Wednesday.
Speaking at a gathering in Beijing to mark the sixth anniversary of
President JIANG Zemin's eight-point policy address on peaceful
reunification with Taiwan, vice Premier QIAN Qichen said that the mainland
is willing to "shake hands with anyone" who embraces the "one China"
principle, including those who have been supporting Taiwan's independence.
Mr. Qian's remarks, carried by the official Xinhua News Agency, is
regarded as an official response to Taiwan President CHEN Shui-bian's
Lunar New Year address in which the Taiwan leader declared that "one China
is not a problem."
Mr. Qian criticized Taipei for the current strenuous relationship across
the straits because Mr. Chen and his pro-independent Democratic
Progressive Party (DDP) failed to accept the "one China" principle. "The
'one China' policy cannot be avoided or fudged," he claimed.
Mr. Qian pledged that Beijing would fully respect the wishes of Taiwan
compatriots and sincerely protect their interests during and after the
reunification process.
Mr. Qian expected that more people from the mainland would be able to
visit the island after the recent historic three "mini-links" that allow
some 500,000 mainlanders to travel directly to Taiwan. He urged Taipei to
abolish its decades-old ban on mainland investment and restrictions on
mainland export to Taiwan.
A top adviser to Taiwan's major opposition party Kuomintang responded
favorably to Mr. Qian's remarks, pointing out that it had shown "greater
flexibility" on cross-strait ties. (LIU Weiming, WU Yiyi)
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3. Taipei's Unofficial Envoy to Hong Kong Granted Visa .................. 33
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[CND, 01/25/01] The government in Hong Kong finally granted a visa to the
unofficial envoy to the territory from Taipei after a year, AFP reported
on Sunday.
A government source in Hong Kong said that the envoy, CHANG Liang-jen, was
given permission on Friday by Hong Kong's Chief Executive TUNG Chee-hwa.
The source also claimed that Beijing was not consulted. Mr. Chang,
currently the deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Straits Exchange
Foundation, will head up the Taiwan's trade body in Hong Kong and is
expected to arrive in the next two weeks.
Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council confirmed that Mr. Chang was issued a
visa. In a statement, the Council said that giving Mr. Chang a visa was a
"demonstration of goodwill from Hong Kong which would bring positive
aspects to Taiwan-Hong Kong relations." The statement also noted that this
was both an indication of mutual respect between Taiwan and Hong Kong and
evidence that the two islands could work together.
Under an agreement with Beijing, Taiwanese organizations and staff are
permitted to stay in Hong Kong as long as they do not promote Taiwan's
independence from the mainland. Relations between the two islands chilled
when the former trade envoy CHENG An-kuo publicly voiced support for a
comment by the former Taiwanese president LEE Teng-hui that was seen to be
promoting Taiwanese statehood.
The South China Morning Post reported that Mr. Chang was warned not to do
anything more in his post as head of the travel service in Hong Kong than
issue visas to Taiwan, which is the official function of the office. In
addition, Mr. Chang was supposedly asked to sign a document saying that he
does not represent the Taiwanese government. Taipei called this request
"impossible." (Tamara Perkins, YIN De An)
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4. Former Taiwan Aides Grilled on Secret Mainland Discussions ........... 33
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[CND, 01/25/01] Taiwan's Control Yuan is questioning two people who were
aides to former Taiwanese president LEE Teng-hui concerning clandestine
talks with mainland representatives in the early 1990s, the Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported Wednesday.
The Taipei-based China Times reported that SU Chih-cheng, who served as
Mr. Lee's secretarial chief, explained the secret meetings in Hong Kong to
Taiwan's highest ombudsman, the Control Yuan.
The China Times said that said Mr. Su had walked the Control Yuan members
through the minutes taken at the meeting, documented by CHENG Shu-min,
chairwoman of China Television Co.
"Topics of the discussions range from direct transport and trade links,
signing of a peace agreement, to party talks between the Kuomintang and
Chinese communists and Taiwan's first direct presidential elections," the
paper said.
CHIN Hui-chu, a parliamentary representative from the opposition People
First Party, had demanded the investigation once the secretive meetings
were revealed in July 2000.
Apparently the concept for the ground-breaking Taipei-Beijing talks held
in Singapore in 1993 was broached and confirmed in one of the early
meetings held in Hong Kong.
The China Times also noted that the "tacit understanding" between the
mainland and Taiwan that emerged from the Hong Kong talks had helped to
make possible the island's democratization over the past decade,
notwithstanding the military exercises and veiled threats by Beijing in
1996. (Laurel Mittenthal, WU Yiyi)
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5. Revealing "Blood Wound" of Spread of HIV AIDS in Henan Province ..... 561
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--- Written on the eve of the first AIDS Day of the New Millennium
By He Aifang
November 28, 2000
[Original in Chinese language. Translated by David Cowhig
<gaodawei1@hotmail.com>]
Ever since 1995 - 1996, the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Henan Province has
alarmed Chinese health experts including the renowned Chinese AIDS expert
Zeng Yi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. These experts
warn in different ways and in different places that the Henan AIDS
epidemic is real and is serious and may well become a national disaster.
However, Liu Quanxi, the director of the Henan Provincial Health
Department said emphatically at the time, "There is no HIV/AIDS in Henan
Province". Experts say "This is seeing the casket but shedding no
tears".HIV/AIDS has a 5 - 10 year latency period so when the time comes
can the deaths of many, many people be covered up? Liu Quanxi seems to
think, "Well, when that time comes, it'll be time for me to retire."Liu
seems to think that so long as others do not expose my secret it'll be all
right. Although the experts predict misfortune and people really don't
want it to come true, around the year 2000 it became clear: Henan Province
has about 500,000 - 700 000 people infected with the HIV virus. There are
many more still who have Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C.In the eastern and
southern parts of Henan Province there are many counties and cities where
this year where strangely enough many tombstones are being erected. Some
villages are already seeing 30 youths and middle aged people dying each
year. This people have something in common. They all sold blood.
The good natured, simple people of China's central plain never imagined
that HIV/AIDS had anything to do with them. HIV/AIDS, they thought, well
that was a rich people's disease. And they see HIV/AIDS as a disease that
rich people get when they behave in certain ways and don't take
precautions. These people were poor, so when the "blood head" came to them
and said with his sly words, "Lend me some of your blood and I'll give it
right back to you. I'll give you money to boot!", the farmers extended
their rough-hewn arms worn by years of hard work. What they were doing in
fact was giving away their lives to the Devil. That needle and knife,
that plastic tube for giving blood, that blood bag, that centrifuge, that
blood that all sloshed together, and especially that process of
transfusing blood back into you, that Yama, the King of Hell,has already
dispatched those aggressive little devils into your body.
The blood heads want whole blood and blood plasma, of course, so they can
sell it to the biological products company and the hospitals in the city.
Those clever Shanghai people with their talent for accounts and that Wuhan
people, known far and wide for their craftiness, could not have guessed
that ever since 1992, Henan Province blood heads have been selling large
quantities of contaminated blood to biological products companies in
Shanghai and Wuhan. Those companies used the blood to make albumin,
globulin, interferon, platelets and other drugs in a whole line of
nourishing drugs that were sold throughout China.These nourishing drugs
not only infected city people with HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and other
diseases but people never even realized what was happening.To this day,
these kinds of blood collection activities are still going strong
underground in Henan.
In 1992, all of China from the top of society to the bottom was caught up
in the "get rich" craze of that overheated economy.That year a new Henan
Health Department head came into office, creating among other things a
"reform office", a "development office", a "central blood collection
station", a "Wanda Co.", a "development center", and a "biological
pharmaceuticals company".He enunciated his new way of thinking: count on
official seals for the interior, and count on selling blood plasma for the
exterior.
Counting on official seals for the interior meant making full use of the
power of the official stamp of the Henan Provincial Department of
Health.Many permits are issued in order to make a lot of money. Counting
on blood plasma for the exterior meant taking only blood plasma from blood
donors. The red blood cells are returned to the donors and the blood
plasma is sold to pharmaceutical companies. This article will focus mainly
on blood plasma collections to tell you an inside story that will make you
want to make accusations against the perpetrators.
A senior Henan Provincial Health Department official, now retired, said
that Liu Quanxi at the beginning of 1993 in a closed internal meeting of
the Henan health agencies said: We need to focus on developing the service
sector so we'll set up many blood collection stations.Henan has a
population of 90 million people, 80 % of whom are farmers. One to three
percent of them would be willing to sell blood. They could do that once or
twice a year.We can collect that blood and sell it to a biological
products company [shengwu zhipin gongsi] . We can create products worth
hundreds of millions of RMB, which at the same time could be considered to
be helping the farmers escape from poverty. Why don't we put our heads
together and think along this new line of thought.An official should do
something to help the people. I believe that setting up blood collection
stations is the way to do it. We need to work hard along this line so
that we produce results. We need to draw on both inner resources and make
outside contacts as well. We can bring in foreign capital. China doesn't
have HIV and so its blood is very clean so the foreigners will certainly
want it.We need to assemble the capital and mobilize all of society to set
up blood collection stations.We need to fully bring into play Henan
Province's advantages and push for the reform of the Henan health care
system!
Kaifeng was the first to respond to the call by setting up a blood
collection station. The Henan Provincial Department of Health praised it
and even held a special meeting at that blood collection station.The whole
province was energized. The epidemiological stations of the various
counties and the woman and child health protection stations set up blood
collection stations. Blood collection stations were also established in
some townships and villages.Military units, distribution companies, coal
mines, and factories set up blood collection stations as well.Some county
People's Consultative Congresses and People's Congresses also get into the
act and set up their own blood collection stations.At one point Henan
Province had set up 200 "legal blood stations" and an unknown number of
illegal blood stations.
Some blood stations were composed of just a centrifuge, some plastic tubes
reused many times and some needles carried on a tractor.They would go into
the village to draw blood, bringing blood collection services right to the
door and paying on the spot. Biological products companies from all over
China came to Henan to buy blood plasma.They all shared a common goal --
to take the blood of the central plateau rural village country cousins in
exchange for money.
In order to find even bigger buyers, Li Quanxi lead blood selling
delegations to the United States in 1993 and 1994.The second time that he
went to the United States, he had negotiations with several U.S. blood
products companies.Liu suggested to the U.S. companies that they set up
plants to do processing in Henan Province to make blood products. This
would be more convenient, would avoid problems with Chinese Customs, which
doesn't allow blood to be exported, and would be more profitable.Liu
Quanxi said to the U.S. companies, "Henan Province has abundant and
concentrated blood supplies. The blood is clean. There isn't any HIV in
Henan Province and the blood is cheap" .Considering that at that time
Henan was China's second most populous province and that Liu was the first
Chinese official who dared to sell blood, the U.S. companies arranged for
a special plane to transport Liu Quanxi during his visit to the United
States. Later Liu on many occasions told people in China about that
special plane he used in America and how the Americans treated him like a
VIP.
The American companies visited Henan several times to study the situation.
Later,the U.S. companies were thinking of making a very large investment
that would result in the formation of a new unit at the provincial deputy
department head level, and might have been handled by the Henan Provincial
government or the Henan Province Planning Commission (as it was called at
that time). This would have put the investment into an area, which Liu did
not control, so he lost interest and let the matter slide.
Recently, an important officials in the Luohe City Health Bureau had this
to say: Liu Quanxi set aside 200,000 RMB (USD 25,000) in capital as well
as equipment and then directed his younger sister to set up a blood
station in his own hometown of Yancheng County, Henan.With the support of
the then director of the Luohe Health Bureau Liu Xuezhou (now Vice
Director of the Henan Provincial Health Department) six blood collection
stations were established in Xiping, Shangcai, Xihua, Xuchang, Taikang and
Weishi counties. This six blood collection stations belong to the Liu
family. These stations followed no rules, they took blood any way they
pleased and even beat and cursed some of the blood donors. For example, as
one bloodhead said to a small paper that had reported on the bloodhead's
activities, "You go tell the Department of Health. I'm not afraid!"
There was a small time bloodhead in Zhongmu County who collected blood not
far from the Liu family blood station in Weishi County. The bloodhead
wasn't finding buyers so he went to the Henan central blood station to
look for a buyer.Liu Quanxi took advantage of the bloodhead's credulity to
out the situation and address of the blood station.Then the bloodhead
trustingly lead a group of people to the blood station. Even when that
bloodhead went into prison Damu he perhaps still didn't know how he had
been caught red-handed.This case became the basis for the political
achievements of Liu Quanxi in the later period of suppressing the
bloodheads.Liu Quanxi made himself a bloodhead. However the position he
achieved as a blood lord is a position his flunkies created for him.
Henan Province is not developed. It neither lies on the coast nor on the
frontiers. It is the heartland of the central plain. In the early 1990s,
Henan's economic and social environment was such that there wasn't much
drug addiction or prostitution.The farmers of the central plain, like
their fathers and ancestors before them, made a living from the soil.
Whoever would have thought that the dreams of wealth of a high official of
the Henan Provincial Department of Health would push so many people to
these people towards death.
Some people say that Shangqiu Department of Health Director Zheng Bingyin
assigned important tasks to Hu Wanlin was because Zheng didn't understand
medicine and other people got him all confused.That argument would perhaps
convince people who have knowledge of the situation. If one were to say
that Liu Quanxi started out with the intention of spreading HIV to the
people of the central plains, perhaps that would not be believed.
Liu Quanxi's problem was initially that he was in a rush to make money. A
shot at big bucks weakened his judgment. His ambitions knew no limits. He
believed that there could not possibly be HIV in Henan.Later, when the
collection of blood had gotten seriously out of control, he began to fear
for his own personal responsibility and that the Liu family blood stations
would be exposed.So he decided on a cover up, lying to those above and
suppressing those below, telling lies, and striking in revenge against
whistleblowers. LIu's story is one in which differences in degree
gradually became became fundamental differences.
In 1995 and 1996, grassroots medical workers discovered some people who
were HIV positive. In order to confirm their finding, they sent samples to
Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing and Wuhan.The test results astounded some
Chinese experts.HIV/AIDS was already very serious in Henan Province. When
these experts want to go to Henan Province to investigate, nobody dared
take them out to the rural villages.
Recently, a physician said:In 1995, he took blood samples near a blood
collection station sponsored by a transportation company and the local
health bureau near a certain city in eastern Henan.Three out of the ten
samples contained HIV antibodies -- positives.
He sent the samples to another city. Results confirmed. When he reported
the results to the local health bureau, criticized him, saying. "You are
an idiot. When the Health Department gave permission to set up a blood
collection station they thought of everything.It is impossible that there
is HIV. You careless talk will influence the income of our blood station."
The physician said: At this time, the three people who had tested positive
said that they regularly sold blood plasma at blood stations in
theKaifeng, Lankao, Shicheng, and Shangqiu region. Usually this blood was
sold to a big company in Shanghai.
Liu Quanxi was astonished to hear that outside experts wanted to come to
Henan to investigate HIV/AIDS.It was then that he realized the bankruptcy
of his policy: During his time as an official, he was going to produce
benefits for people. For internal matters, rely on the power of official
seals; in external matters, rely on selling blood plasma.
Liu arranged for fine food and drink when the Academician Zeng Yi visited
Henan. No problem with visiting the office, just don't let him go down to
the countryside.The Ministry of Health can collect documents but rumors
can be strenuously denied; the Provincial government can collect reports
but the guesses of individuals should not be given credit lest they affect
the economic development of our province.A physician at the Zhoukou
epidemiological station did not obey this call.The physician bravely gave
information and help to experts from outside the province. The physician
lost both job and income.
The latency period of HIV gave Liu Quanxi a hand. High officials in the
provincial government who didn't understand medicine gave him the
opportunity.Because nobody was dying just then, so it looked like there
was no problem. Moreover, provincial officials just didn't want to look
into the matter.
Recently, two Henan Province epidemiological station experts said: In
1996, under pressure from society and experts, the Henan Provincial
Department of Health mobilized "its own" forces to carry out a study of
HIV that focused on blood sellers in thirteen counties.People who went out
to the countryside to do the study were divided into six groups.They
tested 100,000 people in all. In order to ensure secrecy, Liu Quanxi
ordered that the people who participated in the survey may not exchange
data and may not reveal their results to outsiders. Each group made its
own independent report.A participant in the study of the Shangqiu blood
station said that the data there showed that 84% were HIV positive.
Weishi, Xiping, Shangcai, and Taikang were also very serious. The lowest
survey among those counties found 67 percent HIV positive.Since the
figures for each study were never released, experts estimate that at that
time in Henan Province there were at least 100,000 people infected with
HIV. But Henan at that time had one million people who were selling blood.
Moreover, the two experts said, those people who helped Liu Quanxi with
the coverup all got promoted into good positions.
A reliable source said: The Party organization in the Henan Department of
Health held a stormy debate about the results of this survey.Liu Quanxi
insisted that the results of the survey could not be published nor could
they be reported to higher authorities. A vice director of the Health
Department who insisted that the results be reported was criticized.
Things often happen that way these days. In a situation in which the
ordinary people cant fight those in power, when someone in power says they
want things done a certain way, even when that it is wrong we just carry
out the order anyways.
Gao Yaojie
Gao Yaojie is a gynecologist at the Henan Chinese School of Traditional
Medicine Hospital.After she retired, she began doing research on sexually
transmitted diseases.At first she just looked into the STD advertisements
on the street and criticized them. As she got deeper into her research,
she found that the strongest opposition to her work came not from quack
doctors who were cheating people out of their money.Her biggest opponents
turned out to be an organization that she thought originally thought would
support her efforts -- the Henan Provincial Department of Health.That
strong little old lady didn't realize just who that opponent she was going
to conquer was. She frequently wrote letters to central government and
provincial leaders. She shared her views with the news media. She used
her small pension to print educational materials and to go to see AIDS
patients in the countryside, especially women and small children. She won
the praise of society and the media. She won the honorary title of "The
Number One Citizen Worker for HIV Prevention". Many newspapers, television
stations and websites in both China and foreign countries reported on her
activities.
Gao Yaojie's personal campaign upset Liu Quanxi's plans. As pressure from
society to clean up the blood market increased, he realized that in
choosing between money and power it is better to hold on to power. He
imagined that he could take advantage of the latent period of HIV, bring
the blood market under control, and hide the seeds of Henan's disaster
that had been planted some years before. Then, when HIV had appeared
throughout the country, Henan's problem would not look so exceptional.
The strenuous calls of Gao Yaojie and the reports of some journalists that
appeared in the Great River News (Dahe Bao), the Zhengzhou Evening News
(Zhengzhou Wanbao) and other newspapers became a background noise blocking
Liu Quanxi's further political advancement. Liu secretly put pressure and
harassment of Gao and her family. Liu used personal connections to
engineer the transfer of Wang Jiheng, the top health reporter of the Great
River News. In late 1998, Liu Quanxi heard that the Great River News was
going to print an article about HIV in Henan Province.Liu at once ordered
a person named Han who had a close connection to the newspaper company to
take 80,000 RMB to the newspaper company and offer to replace the HIV
article with a big advertisement. Liu also used his influence to get the
health reporters of several influential Henan newspapers transferred.
These reporters hadn't been writing about HIV in just the way that Liu
Quanxi wanted. Late one night in July 1999, Zhengzhou police seized a van
carrying blood plasma to Kaifeng. When journalists got to the scene, a
policeman said that the people in the van had all run away. Did they
really run away? Later, a journalist made an undercover visit and was
told in a whisper by a policeman: "We got a phone call from a "VIP" in the
provincial government who ordered us to secretly let them go. "There were
four blood sellers involved, two men and two women. One was the younger
sister of Liu Quanxi. A journalist went to the site of the old blood
station, but it was already empty.Such a rapid move was not something that
an ordinary crook could manage. The journalist went back to the police
station and was told but a policeman, "We didn't get a chance to
interrogate them. They all ran away. Without a trace."
There is more and more HIV/AIDS in Henan. HIV is being passed along to
children.Some Beijing hospitals discovered:these days most of the people
diagnosed with HIV come from Henan Province.Although some patients don't
want to reveal their identity, they are identifiable from their Henan
accent. Their clothing shows them to be country people.Professor Zeng Yi
of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing experts have said many
times to Henan Health Department officials:Pay close attention to the
HIV/AIDS situation and set up HIV/AIDS prevention stations.If necessary,
the central government will provide assistance.Liu Quanxi response has
been negative. A director responsible for disease control at the Chinese
Ministry of Health in an informal meeting said: Liu Quanxi of Henan
Province speaks empty, false words. No truth comes out of his mouth.
Just as Gao Yaojie and some journalists were giving Liu Quanxi a hard
time, Gui Xien like a cat slunk into the heart of the central plains.He
went to Henan to see patients at the request of his student in Shangcai
County.During a simple and unannounced visit to Henan, this expert
discovered that the rate of HIV infection in Henan villages had already
exceeded 60 percent.His report astonished people at high levels in Beijing
and scared the Henan Health Department as well. Academician Zeng Yi began
to watch the HIV situation in Henan from 1995 onwards. However the social
situation at that time did not allow that scholar to get the support that
would have been needed from all quarters to stop the spread of HIV in
time. He could only sigh, "Henan see the casket but doesn't shed tears!"
Gui Xien's 1999 report confirmed Zeng Yi's deductions.Gao Yaojie,
fearlessly went several times to the countryside to see sick people and to
draw attention to the problem. The media began to pay attention to the
problem.
Some of the journalists at the Great River News, the Zhengzhou Evening
News and the City Morning News (Chengshi Zaobao) were angry.They
anonymously printed articles about HIV. While reporting on Gao Yaojie's
visits to people in the countryside, they wrote veiled criticism of the
Henan Provincial Department of Health.Liu Quanxi, through the Provincial
Propaganda Department, put pressure on the newspapers and put a stop to
that kind of reporting.The journalists then began "surrounding Henan from
the exterior" [Note: by placing articles about Henan in papers in other
provinces. end note].
Intense attention from the outside forced the Henan Health Department to
send people to the countryside during 1999 and 2000 to determine what the
actual situation was.According to an official at the Henan Province
Epidemiological Station official who asked to remain anonymous, he did a
sampling survey at Shangcai County in the Zhumadian region and discovered
that the situation was even more serious than had been reported in the
newspapers.Luo Gang and Zhaodiangxiang, both to the south of the county
seat, were the most serious. Three people had died in one household. The
situation in Wenlou Village in Luogangxiang was reported several times in
the media.He said that Zhaodianxiang is more serious that Wenlou Village.
He mentioned a woman in Lipu Village who developed an unbearable fever and
so hung herself. She had been infected with HIV when she sold blood in
1993 and 1994.She left behind two children aged two and five. Both the two
children and their father have HIV. He also mentioned that a Shangcai
County health official opened a restaurant but when it turned out that one
of the waiters had HIV, nobody ever dared to go to that restaurant
again.The official lost a large sum of money as a result.People in the
area say that HIV came from Ronan County since a blood station was set up
there before Shangcai. The official strongly insisted that I should never
say whom I got the information from.
According to an expert at the Henan Health Department Epidemiological
Station, HIV in Henan is concentrated in regions south of the Yellow River
such as Zhoukou, Zhumadian, Xinyang, Luohe, Kaifeng, Shanqiu, Nanyang,
Xuchang and Pingdingshan.The farmers there are relatively poor, the
population is dense and there are relatively few natural resources.Some
farmers eager to escape poverty along with some lazy people fall for the
economic enticements of the bloodheads. They don't know what they are
doing and lose their lives to the blood disaster.The expert estimates that
now over 500,000 people are infected with HIV in Henan Province, but it is
difficult to get a more precise idea than that. That area with very
serious HIV is situated around Luohe where the Liu family set up its blood
stations. Is there a connection? He gave the journalist a mysterious wink
of an eye and said, "No, that couldn't be."Nevertheless, the every
reckless operation of the many blood stations in southern Henan is the
main reason for the
Recently, Gao Yaojie has noticed that why controls on her remain, some
officials are taking a more friendly interest in her family life. Her
daughter who has continually harassed at a newspaper but some officials
took the initiative to arrange a job for her at the hospital of the Henan
School of Traditional Chinese Medicine.Professor Gui Xien of Hubei
University has also been informed that he is welcome in Henan and will be
supported in his investigations. The condition for the support is that Gui
not reveal his result to outsiders. The Henan Province health departments
want to buy his tongue.
While it is true that some families are happy and others have worries.
Some officials of the Henan Provincial Department of Health who have spent
a good chunk of youth and later life rising in officialdom together with
Liu Quanxi are coming down with hepatitis B and hepatitis C and ending up
in the hospital.Perhaps they don't even know themselves how they got their
illnesses. Could it have been from blood products?Even if they know that
blood products harmed them, do they dare say so?Is there anyone who dares
to tell them to speak up?A sickroom nurse in the Henan Provincial People's
Hospital for senior cadres said: This year, Liu Quanxi often came to the
hospital. Sometimes it was high blood pressure. Other times it was high
blood sugar.He often had a cold and felt weak.One hospital director
flattered him saying, "Department head, your resistance is getting a bit
weak, we should transfuse some blood proteins into you."Liu Quanxi turned
pale, waved his hands and shouted, "Don't transfuse me with blood protein
into you."Liu Quanxi turned pale, waved his hands and shouted, "Don't
transfuse me with blood proteins! Don't transfuse me with blood proteins!
"Really, it is as if God is playing a joke on them.
The beginning of the deaths of those honest farmers is a sign. The end of
the HIV latent period has come.The media reports reveal the news. Liu
Quanxi's "blood wound" can no longer be hidden.This child of a farmer
harmed many farmers and at the same time put the lives of many city people
in danger as well. Just how many people were affected by this blood
disaster is still an unsettled issue.Perhaps it will come to pass that a
high official gets HIV. Maybe it will be from nourishment products made
from blood plasma or from a prostitute. It will be hard to say.That such
an idiot has sole responsibility for the public health of the people of
China's most populous province, it is strange to think about just what it
means to say that the health of the rural and city people is being
protected. Strange, strange indeed.
Background
That hundreds of thousands of paid blood donors in Henan Province have HIV
has been a dark secret for at least the past five years. The article below
now circulates among Chinese experts in Henan Province and Chinese
patriots elsewhere who can see clearly the disaster that now threatens
their country. Just as the line goes in the wartime anthem, the "Song of
the Volunteers", the "Chinese nation is at at its most dangerous moment"
[Zhonghua minzu dao zui weixiande shike]. Some Chinese experts who have
known this story for years but have had to keep quiet are pleased that
this story is out. They agree that this story is accurate but it is not
the complete story.
Just as the press reports on HIV among blood donors first focused on the
widespread HIV infections among blood donors in Shangcai County in central
Henan, and have now widened to report that no, Shangcai is unfortunately
not an isolated case but all too typical. Yet the problem is not confined
to Henan. The problem of paid blood donors and underground blood
collection centers, as the Chinese press occasionally reports, is serious
in Shanxi, Hubei, Hebei and other provinces. Paid blood donations and
bloodheads also work in Beijing and Shanghai even if the problem seems to
be worse in the interior provinces.Southern Weekend in October 2000 for
example discussed the legion of 4000 paid blood donors in the impoverished
Dingxi region of Gansu Province. Some of this blood from donors with high
rates of hepatitis and other blood borne diseases was sold to a blood
products company in Lanzhou. There the blood is made into various blood
protein products sold in China as well as exported to developing
countries. The US Food and Drug Administration does not permit the
importation of Chinese blood products into the USA.. The spread of HIV
among blood donors and especially blood plasma donors seems to be driven
by the high prices that biological products companies (some connected with
the Chinese military) pay for blood plasma and their willingness to
procure it illegally if need be.
On one level this article can be seen as a poison pen attack on the
director of the Henan Province Health Department. The anger the author
feels for the Health Department and its leaders role in the spread of HIV
and the subsequent cover-up is apparent. Yet poison pen letters can be
true, and some Henan activists familiar with the situation vouch for the
authenticity of this article. Restrictions on the speech of some of these
activists such as Zhengzhou physician and HIV campaigner Gao Yaojie remain
although she is now praised in the official press for drawing attention to
HIV in Henan. Dr. Gao came to Beijing for a public conference on HIV on
January 8th and 9th but the authorities did not permit her to speak. The
problem is bigger than one province and bigger than the alleged misdeeds
of any one official. The Chinese government has a well-thought out HIV
strategy but getting it implemented in the provinces is very difficult.
The Ministry of Health has excellent dedicated people working on the
problem but the Ministry has only several hundred people and just a few
people working on contagious disease policy.One theme of the article is
that officials in Beijing knew about the problem in Henan Province, very
much wanted to stop it but were unable to do so. Why? China sometimes
seems to be not so much a country of one Big Brother but of many little
brothers (some well meaning, others not) who dont pay much attention to
each other.
China's HIV problem breaks down into management components that can be
addressed by the government such as blood collection and donation
irregularities and the spread of disease due to substandard medical
practice (also called iaotrogenic disease). Both are very serious in
China. In fact dirty needles (the rule rather than the exception in much
of rural China, especially in the interior provinces) spread hepatitis to
ten percent of Chinas people but are even higher -- near 20 percent in the
interior. Indeed, now that China seems to be on the verge of admitting to
the big problem in Henan Province, perhaps the first place to start with
strict management of medical practice to ensure safe medical practice and
no medical transmission of disease would be those AIDS villages in Henan.
So many people have HIV there, the chances of it spreading further must be
quite high.
Now the chance of getting HIV from a dirty needle is small each time but
not if you are getting regular frequent dirty needle injections. Both the
problems of blood donation and collection and the spread of disease by
substandard medical care can be addressed by government.Other cause of HIV
spread related to behaviors such as intravenous drug injection and
prostitution can be addressed through behavioral interventions which would
take much longer.
The Chinese government in December announced a crackdown on illegal blood
collections and sales in violation of December 1996 Ministry of Health
regulations on blood collection procedures and the October 1998 law that
outlawed paid blood donations.An early January press report discussed a
crackdown in Chongqing where five blood plasma collection stations were
closed and the biological products company that bought the blood plasma is
under investigation.
Background information:
Chinese National Medium-and Long-Term Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS
Prevention and Control in China(1998-2010)
http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/english/sandt/hivpolicypr98-2010.htm
Recent Reports on HIV/AIDS and STDs in China
http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/english/sandt/hivartic.html
US Embassy-China reports on HIV/AIDS in China
http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/english/sandt/sandtbak-hp.html#AIDS
China Health Press Clippings
http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/english/sandt/sandsrc.htm#Health
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For information on the work of the United Nations Program on AIDS
(UNAIDS) in China see their webpage at UNAIDS
http://www.unchina.org/unaids/eus.html and UNAIDS' International
Partners in HIV/AIDS prevention and control work about the work of
Australia, the UK and several other countries as well as some NGOs in
this area.
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6. What's in January 26th's Hua Xia Wen Zhai #513 (cm0101d) ............ 36
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
_From: Hua Xia Wen Zhai Editorial Board (cnd-cm@cnd.org)
Hua Xia Wen Zhai
(CND Chinese Magazine)
Issue #513
January 26, 2000
ISSN 1021-8602
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents (cm0101d)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Headline News of the Week (January 19 - January 25) ................. CND
2. Glimpse of China: Driving in Beijing .......................... SHA Jinzi
3. Flashback: Celebrating the Spring Festival .................. WANG Boqing
Beijing's Noodles ................................ HE Jiasheng
4. "Wo Men" ("One of Us"): Holidays in America .................... LIU Chun
5. Random Thoughts: My Chinese Dream .......................... HONGDU Youzi
6. Opinions: Learn to Respect .................................. BAO Chengmo
7. Prose: Those "One", Part 2 .................................... YANG Lian
8. Info Exchange: Regulations on Schooling for Returnees' Children
9. What's in January 22nd's Hua Xia Wen Zhai Zeng Kan #247 (zk0101c)
What's in January 23rd's Hua Xia Wen Zhai Zeng Kan #248 (zk0101d)
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CND-CM Executive Editor: GU Zheng
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