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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000156 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/CM AND DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  7/18/2018 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KHIV CH
SUBJECT: CHINA HIV/AIDS ACTIVIST KEEPS UP THE FIGHT 
 
REF: CHENGDU 002 
 
CHENGDU 00000156  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate 
General, Chengdu. 
REASON: 1.4 (d) 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary:  Internationally-recognized HIV/AIDS campaigner 
Dr. Gao Yaojie discussed with Congenoff during a recent visit to 
Chengdu her ongoing work and the upcoming publication in Hong 
Kong of her politically-charged memoirs.  She expects to travel 
through Guangdong and Hong Kong on her way to a conference in 
Manila in late August.  The eighty-one-year-old Gao said her 
remaining task in life is to maintain her integrity despite 
pressure from Chinese officials whom she claims would like to 
"misuse her reputation" for their own purposes.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (C) Dr. Gao, who received a Vital Voices award in 2007 as a 
distinguished woman leader during a ceremony in Washington 
co-chaired by Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Kay Bailey 
Hutchinson (R-TX), told Congenoff that two new books by her, the 
manuscripts of which were smuggled out of China (see reftel) 
late last year, will be published by Ming Bao this July in Hong 
Kong.  One of the books is an overview of her most recent work. 
The other more sensitive book is her memoirs.  It details the 
"misdeeds" of Communist Party and government officials in Henan 
Province who tried to cover up contamination of blood supplies 
during the 1990s. 
 
Local Persecution 
------------------ 
 
¶3. (C) Gao said her principal remaining goal in life is "to 
stand firm and never tell lies" no matter how much pressure she 
comes under from Henan authorities.  She referred to her main 
"persecutors" as Henan Deputy Governor Kong Yufang, who is in 
charge of education, health, culture and publishing in the 
province, and Wang Quanshu, a provincial Deputy Party Secretary. 
 (Note: Gao told Congenoff in March 2007 that Wang and other 
local officials visited her to present her with flowers while 
she was under house arrest in February 2007 just before 
President Hu Jintao personally intervened to order her release 
and allow her to go to the United States to receive her Vital 
Voices award.  A picture of what appears to be a visibly wary 
Gao receiving flowers while under arrest made the front page of 
the Henan Daily (and is available on a Henan official website -- 
see ). 
 
¶4. (C) According to Gao, Wang and Kong first rose to prominence 
in Henan as Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.  During 
his Red Guard days, Wang was known as the "dog-head general" 
(goutou junshuai) for his "tricky self-serving advice." 
Although Kong has just a primary school education and two years 
at the "Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University" (gongnongbing 
daxue), a former Cultural Revolution era educational 
institution, she is nevertheless in charge of education, health, 
propaganda, the arts and publishing in Henan. 
 
Other HIV/AIDS Campaigners 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) The first person in China to warn about the spread of 
HIV/AIDS has been forgotten, Gao observed.  Dr. Sun Yongde, the 
chief physician at the Hebei Province Anti-Epidemic Station 
warned in 1988 of possible HIV contamination in China's blood 
banks.  Unfortunately Sun's early warning was ignored.  He died 
in 2002.  Gao also mentioned another person, better known, who 
warned of the dangers of HIV/AIDS before she herself became 
involved, Dr. Wang Shuping of the Henan Antiepidemic Station in 
Zhoukou City.  Wang predicted on the basis of her research on 
Hepatitis B and its spread through the blood banks that HIV 
would also likely spread rapidly through Henan's 220 
government-run blood banks.  She spoke out regularly and 
strongly at meetings.  Although beaten up and fired at the 
instigation of local security officials, she was able to 
continue working as a research assistant to Academician Dr. Zeng 
Yi in Beijing, the longtime chair of China's National HIV/AIDS 
Committee.  Wang is now a blood researcher at the University of 
Utah. 
 
In Good Spirits 
---------------- 
 
¶6. (C) Gao looked very well and cheerful, in sharp contrast to 
the impression she made on Congenoff during her March 2007 visit 
to Washington to attend the Vital Voices awards ceremony.  She 
was very pleased with the results of a recent cataract operation 
on her right eye.  Gao noted she had scheduled the operation in 
Henan on purpose while local cadres were preoccupied with a 
Party Congress.   She claimed local officials might try to 
arrange an "accident" for her during any hospitalizations, so 
 
CHENGDU 00000156  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
she plans to schedule an operation for her left eye with little 
advance notice. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Gao is proud of the several orphans she supports.  One 
recently ranked fifth in her high school.  She said she does not 
have the money to support the HIV/AIDS orphans through college, 
but a Hong Kong charity, the Chi Heng Foundation  (note: in 
Mandarin, the Zhixing Foundation, website at 
www.chfaidsorphans.com ) will 
assist.  The Zhixing Foundation supports 6000 HIV/AIDS orphans, 
including children who have lost one parent as well as those who 
lost both parents to the disease.  Gao says she still hears from 
many people in Henan who were infected with HIV through blood 
transfusions.  Fifty-eight peasants visited her in Zhengzhou in 
January 2008 at considerable risk since her home is closely 
watched.  She continues to accumulate case histories. 
 
Working the Blogs 
------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) Gao, with the help of her adopted children, still blogs. 
She said that in addition to her older blog on blog.sina.com, 
which is heavily censored and does not allow comments, she has 
two other blogs which are have attracted many online comments. 
When Congenoff saw her in March 2007, she noted her writings 
were safe since she kept them always with her on a thumb-drive 
hanging around her neck.  The addresses of the old blog and two 
newer ones are: 
 
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1260580754 
 
. 
 
¶9. (U) This message was coordinated with Embassy Beijing. 
BOUGHNER