Fearing Clinton’s Wrath, China Places AIDS Activist Under House Arrest
February 5, 2007Retired doctor and renowned AIDS activist Gao Yaojie has been placed under house arrest by Chinese officials, who are seeking to prevent her from travelling to the United States to meet with Senator Hillary Clinton.
Dr. Gao, 79, is apparently being confined, alone, in her apartment in Zhengzhou, a central Chinese city, according to the New York Times. “Now her phone is cut off,” said Hu Jia, a friend of Dr. Gao’s and an acclaimed AIDS activist himself. “She can’t even call out for help if something goes wrong.”
Officials in Henan Province apparently did not want her to attend a prominent international event. “They tried to persuade her not to go to America and meet Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Hu said. “She refused, and then the police appeared.”
Dr. Gao had been preparing to come to the United States to be a honored by the nonprofit group Vital Voices Global Partnership at the group’s annual Global Leadership Awards, to be held March 14 in Washington. Senator Clinton and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison are honorary co-chairwomen of the group.
Dr. Gao is frequently credited with helping to convince the Chinese government of the need to confront the spread of H.I.V. For more on Dr. Gao, see the New York Times story and this collection of writings by and about Dr. Gao.
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Posted by Ben Landy
