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China's Blood Sellers




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In the early 1990s, villagers around central China were organized by local governments to sell their blood. But some of these village blood selling businesses were unhygenic and many villagers contracted HIV/AIDS. Angela Sun braves the wrath of local officials to visit a village in Hebei Province where 20% of the residents contracted HIV/AIDS.
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6 responses // China's Blood Sellers

  • We entered this village not knowing what to expect, because our visit had been set up via a series of established connections in Beijing that Vanguard has--connections which I probably shouldn't link to this particular story...So in the piece, you can watch the actual process of Angela winning the trust of the HIV/AIDS women. This is what it looks like when you're somewhere simultaneously trying to figure out a situation, while unsure how far you can push people to talk, because the local authorities don't like reporting on these kinds of issues. What the piece doesn't tell you how many village blood sellers across China got HIV/AIDS. And that's not because China national government hasn't become open on the subject of HIV. In May of 2004, Laura Ling--now the head of Vanguard--and I spent two weeks traveling China in the company of national public health officials. They showed us the entire saga of how AIDS came to China. It started with heroin crossing over from the Golden Triangle in Myanmar in 1989, which resulted in up to two million Chinese drug addicts, some of whom became HIV positive, and then spread the virus to sex workers and beyond. The showed us everything--needle exchanges, clinics for sex workers, condom distribution programs--everything except the village blood sellers. That's because local officials block even the national government from publicizing the issue. It's a good illustration of China's uneven steps toward greater transparency.
    MitchKoss
  • Great POD !!!
    Kidryu16
  • It's great that you have shown this problem of China that the government has been trying to keep quiet for years. Before, I even watched this pod i thought China didn't have a big problem with AIDS, but this pod showed me that my view was wrong. My question is that if so many people in the rural areas have AIDS, then will that in turn be passed to the Urban areas as well. It is said that China is in a Industrial Revolution which i have witnessed firsthand when i have visited China each year the past 3 years. Therefore, millions of rural people are moving to urban areas like Beijing and Shanghai.

    Do you think AIDS will be an occurring problem in China?

    On another note, I have also noticed how China may not feel like a communist country until the government officials have your name. i went with my school's exchange program and we felt that China was peaceful and pleasant. Yet I knew it was for show cause my grandfather, who lives in Beijing, was threatened by government officials when I was four years old.

    Then there's Chinese women. When i was in China at 4 years old I remember how my grandparents where so happy i was a boy and that i could carry on the family name. But now in present day I saw girls just as treasured as boys in Xi'an China. I keep in contact with some of the girls i met and they are achieving things that rivaled the past views on women in China. My Chinese friends, boys and girls alike, compete so much that I feel that gender is no longer an issue in urban areas.

    Its great that there are people who are focusing on China now because the textbooks and observations of people 10 years ago are already outdated. China needs to be seen in the present not in the past.
    bigasian181
  • informative and interesting-- keep up the great work
    weilvon
  • great pod
    Ice_cream_Man
  • great pod. courageous reporting.
    LucienRafagas

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