Inter Press Service - November 16, 2001
Antoaneta Bezlova

Deliberately or not, the performance entitled 'Ballet for Life' was shown in the capital just a day before China opened its first international conference on AIDS. Playing a dramatic prelude to the gathering, Bejart's intense glimpse into people's sufferings as a result of the disease was seen by many as a sign of Beijing's readiness to acknowledge China's problem with the global epidemic.

As it emerged later, Chinese authorities were eager to send a signal of openness to tackle a previously taboo topic but were not just ready yet to confront the embarrassing sight of AIDS-afflicted peasants in a public forum like the conference, which opened on Tuesday and ends on Friday.

HIV-infected farmers from the central province of Henan who had travelled to Beijing to appeal for government help were barred from the conference because they were not members of any officially invited organisation.

The story of AIDS-afflicted Henan peasants was covered in detail by the foreign media earlier this year, but got little exposure in the Chinese press. Had their voices been allowed to be heard in Beijing, the case would have caused a national scandal.

"We hope the National People's Congress and the conference participants can hear our voices, and pay attention to the hardships of us afflicted with AIDS," said the peasants in a petition.

"We beseech the central and provincial governments to immediately implement measures to assume responsibility of providing those infected with free medical treatment," it said.

The villagers believe the government should be held accountable for their infections. Local officials in Henan promoted blood sales in the early 1990s as an easy way to eradicate poverty. Unscrupulous health workers bought blood from poor farmers, pooled it so they could extract the valuable plasma, and then injected what was left back into donors.

That made it possible for one HIV carrier to infect dozens of people, and health experts say that up to 50,000 people contracted the disease this way. Villagers claim officials covered up the practice in return for a cut of the profits.

This pattern of negligence and corruption is mirrored in other parts of the country, where local governments have long ignored the country's hundreds of thousands of AIDS victims, considering them an embarrassment.

AIDS, like sex, remains a taboo subject in much of China, especially the poor rural areas. Government efforts at this stage are focused on prevention and public education rather that treating people with AIDS. The underfunded public health system has been unable to help more than a few.

Officially, there have been just 1,208 AIDS cases since the 1980s and 641 AIDS-related deaths, although the Ministry of Health recently admitted there were something more like 600,000 cases. The World Health Organization estimates more than one million AIDS cases.

There is plenty of evidence of the virus spreading through intravenous drug use, prostitution and the tragic cases of illegal blood sales. Health workers have complained their efforts for more public education are hampered by prejudice, ignorance and government neglect.

The Health Minister, Zhang Wenkang, opening the four-day conference, acknowledged China had an "extremely serious" AIDS problem, with the number of reported infections increasing by 67 percent in the first half of 2001.

"China is at the verge of a major epidemic if business as usual continues," said Peter Piot, head of the UN Program on HIV/AIDS. He urged the Chinese leadership to face up to mass infections through illegal blood buying in central China and take urgent action to curb the epidemic.

He said blood banks also caused mass infections in the province of Shanxi, which he visited last weekend, and possibly other provinces.

"This conference is of global significance .... over the next two decades what happens in China will determine the global burden of HIV/AIDS," Piot said.

"Whether there will be 10 million people or 50 million people infected in China, that will depend in the first place on whether the country really wakes up on a massive scale."

He called on China's leaders to get personally involved in the fight against the disease. "Leadership is what makes the real difference in the fight against AIDS and leadership from the top," Piot said.

"Presidents and prime ministers have spoken out in many countries in the world and really have made a difference," he declared.

The UN has said China could have 10 million HIV carriers by 2010 unless it acts decisively now.

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