Dr Gao Yaojie (79) will finally be allowed to travel to the United States to receive the 2007 Vital Voices Global Women's Leadership Award for Human Rights prize. In the past decade, Dr Gao has waged a brave struggle to expose the immoral blood selling activities in Henan province. Ten of thousands of poor people were infected when they sold blood for money at illegal blood donation stations backed by local authorities.
The central government is aware of the dangers of a further spreading of Aids. It has recently taken many commendable initiatives to combat the epidemic. In an article in The Lancet, Roger Detels of the University of California (UCLA) has highly praised the Chinese government.
But provincial and local governments on the other hand continue to harass anybody who could shed a negative light on their shameful activities. Dr Gao was kept under virtual house arrest at her home in Zhengzhou for 20 days to prevent her to travel to Beijing to apply for a U.S. visa. Her family members were put under pressure to persuade her to pretend to be sick to have an excuse not to travel to the U.S. Her reply: “I cannot lie to the whole world”. Even if George W. Bush would send her a “How to” she would refuse to use it.
Dr Gao was only let go after a direct order from Beijing, but nobody was allowed to accompany her to help her with her luggage.
The intervention from the central government is commendable, but those who put pressure on her in Henan should be severely punished. Those involved in the blood sale scandal should also be brought to justice. All this cannot be just left to the provincial government. The Supreme Procuratorate should sent a team to Zhengzhou to end this lawlessness.
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