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| China approves special AIDS jails |
| By The Australian |
| Published: 06/14/2004 |
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Southern China's Guangdong province has given the green light to open special detention centers for convicts suffering from AIDS, state media said last week. "In principle, city authorities are permitted to set up dedicated facilities for AIDS sufferers and other special categories among drug criminals," the provincial government said according to the Southern Metropolitan News. The move comes after several years of steady growth in the proportion of inmates suffering from AIDS, the paper reported. It quoted a lawmaker as saying AIDS sufferers among the province's prison population are "fearless" and carry "a trump card" in the form of their disease. The lawmaker did not elaborate on the remarks, but he appeared to accuse AIDS victims of intimidating fellow inmates by threatening to infect them. China is aiming to keep new AIDS infections to around 1.5 million by 2010, although low levels of education exacerbate the likelihood of further contamination. Until last year, China denied it had been affected by the global AIDS epidemic. Official estimates now put the number of people infected with HIV or AIDS at 840,000. |
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