Black and White Cat has posted the official Xinhua report about Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to an AIDS village in Henan Province, together with a post from activist Hu Jia about what really goes on when top leaders visit the area:
Premier Wen Jiabao doesn’t know that the last time he visited, 1,200 police were dispatched to seal off the road to Wenlou from the county town of Shangcai and a large number of local cadres pretended to be villagers welcoming him. Yang Songquan personally made sure that people who were likely to meet Premier Wen would answer his questions in exactly the way the Henan government wanted, without getting a single word wrong. That show of being close to the people was a waste of time and money. As soon as Premier Wen left, the local authorities breathed a sigh of relief; the country’s premier had turned out to be easy to handle. Now, large numbers of Henan police have already been stationed in Wenlou and sealed off key areas. The local government has also put some active villagers with AIDS under house arrest, usually sending two village cadres and two security guards hired by the Shangcai county police for each “troublemaker.” [Full text]
See also a documentary about AIDS in China, To Live is Better than to Die, which Hu Jia mentions in his post:
