From The Washington Post:
Last month, at the Chinese New Year, officials from China’s central Henan province showed up at the door of Gao Yaojie, an 80-year-old retired obstetrician, blogger and AIDS activist. Previously, provincial officials had come to the house only to harass Gao, who was under house arrest. But this time, on Feb. 17, they came bearing gifts — flowers, balloons and a huge vase.
The provincial officials’ turnaround was a result of international pressure; Gao was told she would be permitted to travel to Washington to receive the Vital Voices Global Leadership Award, which was presented to her here last night.
Gao, a diminutive woman with feet tiny from having been bound when she was a child, has been credited with saving a million lives, if not more, according to public health specialists here. In the mid-1990s, she single-handedly led a crusade that exposed a catastrophic blood plasma donor business that had triggered an HIV/AIDS epidemic in Henan province. [Full Text]
A US based Chinese news website duowei.com published a lengthy interview with Gao Yaojie, entitled “I am a failed person.” See the video on Youtube (in Chinese.)
