A retired senior Chinese health official yesterday called for two of the country’s most powerful leaders to take responsibility for a huge 1990s blood-selling AIDS scandal.
Chen Bingzhong (陳秉中), 78, who has advanced liver cancer, wrote an open letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) pointing out that those guilty of gross negligence in the scandal in Henan Province have still not been punished.
In the letter, published on the Web site of activist group Aizhixing, the former head of the government’s Institute of Health Education pinpoints “two senior officials” who have since entered China’s top nine-member leadership.
Speaking by telephone yesterday, World AIDS Day, Chen pointed the finger at Li Keqiang (李克強) — currently China’s vice-premier and widely touted to succeed Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) — who was head of Henan from 2002 to 2004.
He also named Li Changchun (李長春), the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) propaganda chief, who served in the same position from 1992 to 1998.
Both are now part of the party’s politburo standing committee, the nation’s highest and most powerful decision-making body.
“They have to take responsibility. They must apologize,” Chen said.
In the 1990s, entire villages in Henan were devastated by HIV/AIDS.
Many people were infected after repeatedly selling their blood to collection stations that pooled it into a tub and then injected it back into them after taking the plasma.
The blood-selling scandal was initially covered up by local officials, some of whom were actively involved. However, it eventually came to light after fierce campaigning by activists — including Aizhixing founder Wan Yanhai (萬延海).
The government eventually revealed in 2001 that 30,000 to 50,000 people may have been infected with HIV through the scheme. Chen, though, said the number was closer to 100,000, adding at least 10,000 had died.
He raised the example of an HIV scandal in France in the 1980s that saw thousands transfused with blood contaminated by the virus that causes AIDS.
The incident caused huge concern and led to the prosecution of several officials including the then-health minister.
“In comparison, Henan’s blood scandal was much more serious than France’s,” Chen wrote in the letter. “But not only were no investigations launched against those responsible for the incident, particularly the two officials who now occupy China’s highest decision-making levels, but they were even entrusted with big responsibilities.”
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
Former Chinese ministers of national defense Wei Fenghe(魏鳳和) and Li Shangfu (李尚福) were both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve over graft charges, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday, underscoring the severity of the purge in the military. The armed forces have been one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) after coming to power in 2012. The purges reached the elite Rocket Force, which oversees nuclear weapons as well as conventional missiles, in 2023. Earlier this year they escalated further, resulting in the removal of the top general in
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
The Philippine Coast Guard yesterday said it deployed aircraft to issue radio warnings to a Chinese research ship in a disputed area of the South China Sea “swarming” with vessels from Beijing’s so-called maritime militia. The research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 33 (向陽紅33), which is capable of supporting submersible craft, was operating near a reef in the contested Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), which Taiwan also claims, the Philippine Coast Guard said. The Chinese ship was deploying a service boat toward the Spratly’s Iroquois Reef on Wednesday when it was spotted by a coast guard plane, “confirming ongoing unauthorized [marine scientific research]
RSS