AIDS, Human Rights, and Public Security in China

Abstract

This paper offers a detailed analysis of the epidemiological and legal paradigm for HIV risk in China, paying a particular attention to China’s public security involvement in addressing HIV/AIDS epidemic. In the past two decades, instead of developing a supportive environment of HIV/AIDS prevention and care, China has developed a punitive approach in its responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, including cracking down on prostitution, drug use and drug trafficking, illegal blood collection, and intentional HIV transmission. The paper reviews how the Chinese government painted HIV/AIDS as a foreigner's disease and moral problem in 1987-2006, and China's discrimination and isolation policy against people with HIV/AIDS. In 2006, the Chinese government began to implement China’s Regulations on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment which commits to guarantee equal rights of people with HIV/AIDS in medical care, marriage, employment and education, but in reality people with HIV/AIDS are facing severe discrimination on medical care, marriage, employment and education. Finally, the paper introduces China’s public security surveillance against people with HIV/AIDS or people at risk of HIV infection nationally, which causes stigmatization, privacy disclosure, and rights violations against people with HIV/AIDS.

Keywords: public health, HIV/AIDS, China, drug policy, human rights, privacy disclosure