Ex-official Urges Investigation on Chinese Leaders for HIV Scandal

A former Chinese health official is calling for two top leaders to be investigated for the spread of HIV and AIDS in central Henan province in the 1990’s.

Ahead of the World AIDS Day, Chen Bingzhong published an open letter on November 28 to Chinese regime leader Hu Jintao. The former head of China’s health research organizations says two members of the regime’s Politiburo are directly responsible for the widespread transmission of HIV in Henan province.

The Chinese regime’s Propaganda Chief Li Changchun, and the Vice Premier Li Keqiang were both leaders of Henan province from 1992 to 2004.

During the 1990s, Henan authorities promoted blood-selling schemes as a way to generate income. Many people repeatedly sold their blood to collection stations. The blood was pooled together, and after the useful plasma was extracted, the remaining blood was injected back to those who sold it. All of this was done without any screening for HIV or other diseases.

Henan authorities covered up the scandal for years. This allowed people to be infected with HIV through tainted transfusion in hospitals.

Chen says in his letter the scheme infected more than 100-thousand people, killing at least ten thousand. He wants the regime to formally investigate the two senior officials, saying they have lied to their superiors and to the public.

While the Chinese regime has been more public in addressing the AIDS issue in recent years, no investigations have been carried out into what happened in Henan during the 1990’s. Instead, the Chinese regime has suppressed many outspoken AIDS activists.

According to an official figure, there are 370-thousand people suffering from HIV or AIDS in China today.