China has praised
a prominent AIDS activist just days after she was
confined to her home, a move fellow activists said was aimed
at preventing her from accepting an award in the
United States.
In a Lunar New
Year visit to Gao Yaojie's home on Monday, a Communist
Party provincial deputy secretary extolled the doctor's
''long-standing contributions to our province's
education, health, and AIDS prevention work,'' the Web
site of the party's official People's Daily newspaper
reported.
The 80-year-old
Gao was shown in a photo accepting a parcel from the
official, Chen Quanguo, while other leaders from Henan
province clapped and smiled.
The scene
illustrates China's inconsistent attitude toward
whistle-blowers such as Gao, who play a role in uncovering
problems but are seen by many officials as a threat to
their authority.
Gao is believed
to have angered many officials by exposing corrupt
blood-selling schemes in Henan that infected thousands with
HIV.
Last week, Gao
was blocked from leaving her home by plainclothes police,
apparently to prevent her from applying for a U.S. visa, her
family and fellow AIDS activists said. She is to be
honored next month by Vital Voices Global Partnership,
a nonprofit group supported by New York Democratic
senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Gao has refused
government demands that she decline to pick up the award,
and one of her daughters said the family was urging her to
compromise for the sake of her health.
''It's really not
good for Mom to be in a stalemate with the
government,'' Guo Jingxian said in a telephone interview.
''I think things will get better following this visit
as long as she gives up.''
However, another
AIDS activist, Li Dan, said Gao told him by phone that
she still insisted on picking up the prize herself because
her advancing age might make future trips impossible.
Li suggested
Chen's visit may have been an attempt to offset bad
publicity surrounding the case, which has been widely
reported overseas, although not by China's entirely
state-controlled media.
''I think the
visit might have been a form of crisis management,'' Li
said.
Vital Voices
human rights program director Wenchi Yu Perkins said last
week the group was talking to contacts in China to
''understand what is happening.'' The awards ceremony
is scheduled for March 14 at the John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Although never
charged with any crime, Gao has been detained under
similar circumstances at least twice before.
In 2001 she was
refused a passport to go to Washington to accept an award
from a U.N. group, and in 2003 she was prevented from going
to the Philippines to receive the Ramon Magsaysay
Award for Public Service.
Gao's activism
was deeply embarrassing to provincial officials who had
tried to squelch all reporting on the illegal blood-buying
schemes. They were assisted in part by a central
government that has only recently begun to candidly
discuss its AIDS problems.
Gao has
distributed medicine and information booklets, cared for
AIDS orphans, and hosted those battling AIDS in her
modest apartment. (Christopher Bodeen, AP)