CHINA HIV/AIDS ACTIVIST KEEPS UP THE FIGHT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000157 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP/CM AND DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 7/18/2018 TAGS: PHUM PGOV KHIV CH SUBJECT: CHINA HIV/AIDS ACTIVIST KEEPS UP THE FIGHT REF: CHENGDU 002 CHENGDU 00000157 001.2 OF 002 CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate General, Chengdu. REASON: 1.4 (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Internationally-recognized HIV/AIDS campaigner Dr. Gao Yaojie discussed with Congenoff during a recent visit to Chengdu her ongoing work and the upcoming publication in Hong Kong of her politically-charged memoirs. She expects to travel through Guangdong and Hong Kong on her way to a conference in Manila in late August. The eighty-one-year-old Gao said her remaining task in life is to maintain her integrity despite pressure from Chinese officials whom she claims would like to "misuse her reputation" for their own purposes. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Dr. Gao, who received a Vital Voices award in 2007 as a distinguished woman leader during a ceremony in Washington co-chaired by Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX),told Congenoff that two new books by her, the manuscripts of which were smuggled out of China (see reftel) late last year, will be published by Ming Bao this July in Hong Kong. One of the books is an overview of her most recent work. The other more sensitive book is her memoirs. It details the "misdeeds" of Communist Party and government officials in Henan Province who tried to cover up contamination of blood supplies during the 1990s. Local Persecution -------------- ¶3. (C) Gao said her principal remaining goal in life is "to stand firm and never tell lies" no matter how much pressure she comes under from Henan authorities. She referred to her main "persecutors" as Henan Deputy Governor Kong Yufang, who is in charge of education, health, culture and publishing in the province, and Wang Quanshu, a provincial Deputy Party Secretary. (Note: Gao told Congenoff in March 2007 that Wang and other local officials visited her to present her with flowers while she was under house arrest in February 2007 just before President Hu Jintao personally intervened to order her release and allow her to go to the United States to receive her Vital Voices award. A picture of what appears to be a visibly wary Gao receiving flowers while under arrest made the front page of the Henan Daily (and is available on a Henan official website -- see ). ¶4. (C) According to Gao, Wang and Kong first rose to prominence in Henan as Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. During his Red Guard days, Wang was known as the "dog-head general" (goutou junshuai) for his "tricky self-serving advice." Although Kong has just a primary school education and two years at the "Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University" (gongnongbing daxue),a former Cultural Revolution era educational institution, she is nevertheless in charge of education, health, propaganda, the arts and publishing in Henan. Other HIV/AIDS Campaigners -------------- ¶5. (C) The first person in China to warn about the spread of HIV/AIDS has been forgotten, Gao observed. Dr. Sun Yongde, the chief physician at the Hebei Province Anti-Epidemic Station warned in 1988 of possible HIV contamination in China's blood banks. Unfortunately Sun's early warning was ignored. He died in 2002. Gao also mentioned another person, better known, who warned of the dangers of HIV/AIDS before she herself became involved, Dr. Wang Shuping of the Henan Antiepidemic Station in Zhoukou City. Wang predicted on the basis of her research on Hepatitis B and its spread through the blood banks that HIV would also likely spread rapidly through Henan's 220 government-run blood banks. She spoke out regularly and strongly at meetings. Although beaten up and fired at the instigation of local security officials, she was able to continue working as a research assistant to Academician Dr. Zeng Yi in Beijing, the longtime chair of China's National HIV/AIDS Committee. Wang is now a blood researcher at the University of Utah. In Good Spirits -------------- ¶6. (C) Gao looked very well and cheerful, in sharp contrast to the impression she made on Congenoff during her March 2007 visit to Washington to attend the Vital Voices awards ceremony. She was very pleased with the results of a recent cataract operation on her right eye. Gao noted she had scheduled the operation in Henan on purpose while local cadres were preoccupied with a Party Congress. She claimed local officials might try to arrange an "accident" for her during any hospitalizations, so CHENGDU 00000157 002.2 OF 002 she plans to schedule an operation for her left eye with little advance notice. ¶7. (SBU) Gao is proud of the several orphans she supports. One recently ranked fifth in her high school. She said she does not have the money to support the HIV/AIDS orphans through college, but a Hong Kong charity, the Chi Heng Foundation (note: in Mandarin, the Zhixing Foundation, website at www.chfaidsorphans.com ) will assist. The Zhixing Foundation supports 6000 HIV/AIDS orphans, including children who have lost one parent as well as those who lost both parents to the disease. Gao says she still hears from many people in Henan who were infected with HIV through blood transfusions. Fifty-eight peasants visited her in Zhengzhou in January 2008 at considerable risk since her home is closely watched. She continues to accumulate case histories. Working the Blogs -------------- ¶8. (C). Gao, with the help of her adopted children, still blogs. She said that in addition to her older blog on blog.sina.com, which is heavily censored and does not allow comments, she has two other blogs which are have attracted many online comments. When Congenoff saw her in March 2007, she noted her writings were safe since she kept them always with her on a thumb-drive hanging around her neck. The addresses of the old blog and two newer ones are: http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1260580754 . BOUGHNER