BEIJING, Dec 7 (AFP) - College students, migrant workers and the unemployed are selling their blood in the Chinese capital Beijing to make money, according to a Beijing newspaper Sunday.
The Xinjing paper found that blood dealers -- nicknamed "blood heads" -- found a ready supply of people in Beijing willing to sell blood illegally instead of state-owned company employees who are expected to donate blood but refuse.
A reporter for the newspaper went undercover and found a gang that had arranged for 100 people to sell blood, including several college students.
The "blood heads" looked for poor students on college campuses, out-of-town migrant workers at train stations or other unemployed adults. The gang put up small advertisements seeking blood sellers or sometimes telephoned students in colleges, the report said.
China banned blood selling in 1996 when it discovered unsanitary methods were being used by government-sponsored and private blood collecting outfits, leading to the spread of HIV/AIDS.
The government later began requiring the country's blood banks to take only donated blood. Since most Chinese do not like to donate blood, it requires state-owned companies to convince a certain number of their employees each year to donate blood to meet a quota.
Some companies and employees have colluded with the "blood heads" to find substitutes to get around this government requirement, the report said.
For every 1,000 yuan (120 US dollars) blood dealers make, blood sellers only receive 200 yuan from them, it said.
Blood-selling, which was common in China's heartland from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, caused an AIDS outbreak. Blood was pooled and after the plasma was extracted, the remainder was pumped back into farmers, causing widespread infections.
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