KUNMING, China - Late last year, HIV-AIDS activist Thomas Cai was suddenly summoned to appear the next day at a mysterious meeting in Beijing.
Cai is the founder and director of the well-known nongovernmental organization AIDS Care China - one of the first civil society groups to provide support for AIDS sufferers and their families. But he had no idea whom he would be meeting in the Chinese capital. To his total surprise, he and 11 other scientists were ushered in to meet with President Hu Jintao.
"We were not instructed before what to say," Cai recalls, referring to the normal practice when meeting with top Chinese officials. Instead, the president told Cai "not to say good things, but to talk straight" about the HIV-AIDS problem. For three hours, Hu listened to frank details about grassroots health problems in China.
Yet even though this AIDS activist was invited to meet the highest leadership, Chinese officialdom has not let AIDS Care China register officially as an NGO. "We're getting lots of recognition, but we are still not recognized," says Cai.
This story perfectly illustrates one of the great paradoxes of today's China. Senior leaders realize they need to know what's happening at the grassroots, otherwise they will continue to be caught unawares by dangerous scandals caused by local corruption or bureaucratic fear of reporting bad news. A few examples: the SARS epidemic, the sale of toxic baby milk, and the spread of HIV-AIDS because of tainted blood...
[extract]
CLICK ON THE LINK TO READ THE FULL STORY FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Source:
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Contributed On:
23 May 2010