4.11.2006
Chinese Turn to Civic Power as a New Tool (NYTimes.com)
By HOWARD W. FRENCH
Published: April 11, 2006
XINZHUANG, China — This winter, Liu Xianhong's life was changed for the second time by her infection with AIDS.
The first time was seven years ago, when she discovered that she, along with her newborn son, had contracted the disease through an infusion of contaminated blood given to her during childbirth.
Then late last year, her story was publicized by a leading Chinese journalist, turning one woman's quest for compensation into a national cause célèbre for a new class of advocates who are using the country's legal system to fight for social justice.
Ms. Liu's experience, all but unimaginable as recently as two or three years ago, is increasingly common in China, where a once totalitarian system is facing growing pressure from a population that is awakening to the power of independent organization. Uncounted millions of Chinese, from the rich cities of the east to the impoverished countryside, are pushing an inflexible political system for redress over issues from shoddy health care and illegal land seizures to dire pollution and rampant official corruption.
Ms. Liu first sought help in November, after hearing rumors that she was about to be arrested here in her hometown in this dismal region of northern China for protesting her infection at the local Communist Party headquarters. She was brought to Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the country's most famous site, by the politically aware employee of the blood bank in Xingtai who first publicly accused it of distributing contaminated blood to her and more than a thousand others.
There, amid the crowds of people who show up from all over China each morning to watch the flag-raising ceremony — and provide a measure of anonymity — Ms. Liu met Hu Jia, one of China's leading advocates for people with AIDS. It was the 32-year-old woman's introduction to the world of nongovernmental organizations, or NGO's, which are fighting for better treatment of people with the disease.
(More ... Chinese Turn to Civic Power as a New Tool - New York Times) ¶ 21:28
Published: April 11, 2006
XINZHUANG, China — This winter, Liu Xianhong's life was changed for the second time by her infection with AIDS.
The first time was seven years ago, when she discovered that she, along with her newborn son, had contracted the disease through an infusion of contaminated blood given to her during childbirth.
Then late last year, her story was publicized by a leading Chinese journalist, turning one woman's quest for compensation into a national cause célèbre for a new class of advocates who are using the country's legal system to fight for social justice.
Ms. Liu's experience, all but unimaginable as recently as two or three years ago, is increasingly common in China, where a once totalitarian system is facing growing pressure from a population that is awakening to the power of independent organization. Uncounted millions of Chinese, from the rich cities of the east to the impoverished countryside, are pushing an inflexible political system for redress over issues from shoddy health care and illegal land seizures to dire pollution and rampant official corruption.
Ms. Liu first sought help in November, after hearing rumors that she was about to be arrested here in her hometown in this dismal region of northern China for protesting her infection at the local Communist Party headquarters. She was brought to Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the country's most famous site, by the politically aware employee of the blood bank in Xingtai who first publicly accused it of distributing contaminated blood to her and more than a thousand others.
There, amid the crowds of people who show up from all over China each morning to watch the flag-raising ceremony — and provide a measure of anonymity — Ms. Liu met Hu Jia, one of China's leading advocates for people with AIDS. It was the 32-year-old woman's introduction to the world of nongovernmental organizations, or NGO's, which are fighting for better treatment of people with the disease.
(More ... Chinese Turn to Civic Power as a New Tool - New York Times) ¶ 21:28
