AIDS activist Li Dan (
Li, director of the China Orchid AIDS Project, had been "instrumental in bringing attention to the plight of people living with the disease in China," Reebok said in a news release announcing its Reebok Human Rights Award.
"Li Dan has pressured the Chinese government to respond to the country's rapidly escalating HIV epidemic and has risked his personal safety" to help nurture and educate AIDS orphans rejected by their communities and schools, it said.
The prize, given to activists aged 30 or younger, includes a grant of US$50,000.
In an interview with AP, Li said he still didn't believe China was being straightforward about the real number of AIDS victims in the country.
In related news, a Chinese AIDS activist missing for weeks was released by police yesterday, but a New York Times researcher was still in detention 11 days after a charge against him of leaking state secrets was dropped.
AIDS activist Hu Jia (胡佳) returned to his home in Tongzhou on the outskirts of Beijing after being held by police and the state security apparatus at an undisclosed location for about six weeks, his wife Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕) said by telephone.
Friends and family had tried to locate Hu but police and the state security apparatus had refused to confirm or deny if they were holding him.
Hu was taken into custody ahead of the annual session of parliament and after going on a "relay" hunger strike to protest what he and colleagues said was the government's hiring of thugs to beat up a civil rights campaigner in Guangdong Province last month.
A court agreed this month to a decision by prosecutors to drop the charges of fraud and leaking state secrets against New York Times researcher Zhao Yan (
But Zhao remained in custody on Tuesday.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in