After spending 26 days in a detention centre, a prominent Chinese AIDS activist has been released after confessing to breaking the law and leaking state secrets.
Dr. Wan Yanhai, an outspoken physician and critic of China's slow response to HIV/AIDS, had publicized a growing epidemic in Henan province, where many rural villagers were infected because of faulty blood-collection practices at government-sponsored clinics. Western media had previously reported how the blood was collected and sold to manufacture various pharmaceutical products.
Early in August, Wan anonymously received a secret government report documenting 170 deaths, which he forwarded on an email list. On Aug. 24 Wan was reported missing, and North American human-rights and AIDS groups began lobbying for his release. On Sept. 20 he reappeared and told the BBC that he accepted the government's accusation that he had leaked classified documents and had learned a “good lesson.” Wan, who was awarded the first-ever international human rights award from the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and US-based Human Rights Watch in September, has declined media interviews since his release.
“The real reason [behind Wan's arrest] was that this blood collection was organized by the government and they want to hide that,” Wan's wife, Su Zhaosheng, told CMAJ from Los Angeles, where she attends school.
In July, Chinese authorities banned Wan's activist group — the AIZHI (AIDS) Action Project, which he founded in 1994 — and closed his office. The closure came 4 days after the UN criticized China's inaction concerning HIV/AIDS and warned of an “explosive” AIDS epidemic if immediate action wasn't taken.
China acknowledges that 1 million people are infected with HIV. UNAIDS and the World Health Organization reported 30 000 AIDS-related deaths in China in 2001; the Legal Network estimates that 10 million people will become infected there in the next decade.
Wan moved back to China from Los Angeles, where he was a Fulbright New Century Scholar, in June 2002 and disappeared while attempting to set up an independent medical clinic.
This was not his first run-in with Chinese authorities. In 1993 he was accused of promoting homosexuality and supporting prostitution by creating a health-promotion group for gay men and hosting a radio talk show on gay rights in Beijing. A year later, Wan was dismissed from his job with China's Ministry of Health and lost his housing.
“The ability of Dr. Wan and his colleagues to resume their work without harassment will be a barometer of how serious the Chinese government intends to be in responding to the epidemic,” said Ralf Jürgens, head of the Legal Network. — Barbara Sibbald, CMAJ