{"id":29100,"date":"2008-12-03T22:34:32","date_gmt":"2008-12-04T05:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=29100"},"modified":"2014-12-18T19:48:36","modified_gmt":"2014-12-19T03:48:36","slug":"activists-and-awareness-still-constrained-as-china-vows-to-fight-aids-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/12\/activists-and-awareness-still-constrained-as-china-vows-to-fight-aids-discrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Activists and Awareness Still Constrained as China Vows to Fight AIDS Discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"
Chinese health authorities marked World AIDS Day on Sunday, November 30 by unveiling a giant red ribbon in a ceremony at the Olympic Bird’s Nest Stadium.\u00a0 The ribbon at the stadium is symbolic of China’s pledge to work with the U.N. AIDS agency to combat discrimination against people with HIV and AIDS.\u00a0 It is also a loud sign that Chinese political leaders in recent years have been singing a different tune about AIDS.\u00a0 From AP<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n Organizers [of the ceremony at the Bird’s Nest] said the fear of being stigmatized at work or in their communities is discouraging many people at risk of HIV infection from being tested. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.<\/p>\n After years of denying that AIDS was a problem, Chinese leaders have shifted gears in recent years, confronting the disease more openly and promising anonymous testing, free treatment for the poor and a ban on discrimination against people with the virus.<\/p>\n State television Sunday showed Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visiting a village hit particularly hard by AIDS in eastern China’s Anhui province. Wen, who makes such annual visits to mark World AIDS Day, observed Monday, held hands with children orphaned by AIDS and spoke to patients in beds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Chinese government’s high-profile gesture of acceptance apparently still does not extend to activists campaigning for people with HIV and AIDS.\u00a0 Another AP article<\/strong><\/a> reports that a Chinese AIDS activist was detained by police and sent out of Beijing after participating in World AIDS Day:<\/p>\n Li Xige, who is HIV positive, said she had managed to escape house arrest in her rural town, but that local police tracked her to Beijing.<\/p>\n Li, who campaigns for compensation for victims of infected blood transfusions, said she was taken from her hotel by police early Tuesday, two days after participating in an official event at the Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium for World AIDS Day.<\/p>\n “Four (local) police and one township official took me on the train and accompanied me home,” Li said in a telephone interview. She said she is allowed to leave her house, although is trailed by police, and must avoid traveling to places like Beijing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n