成都立法爱滋病患者不许结婚 
Chinese City Is First to Enact Law on AIDS 
Controversial Rules Set for Infected People, High-Risk Groups 


成都立法爱滋病患者不许结婚 

【多维新闻社15日电】多维社记者李兰田报道/《华盛顿邮报》15日说，中国政府最近决
定公布全国爱滋病危机，爱滋病问题已经成为中国的热门话题。经过多年的沉默之后，中
国媒体现在说，全国可能有一百万人携带爱滋病毒。

爱滋病话题在四川成都尤其引人注意，因为成都是中国第一个采取地方立法对付爱滋病的
城市。成都目前有38个登记的爱滋病毒阳性病例，但实际数字可能高的多，因为中国的爱
滋病统计非常不可靠。政府的全国统计数字只有20000爱滋病毒感染者。

为了控制日益严重的爱滋病流行，中国推出爱滋病国家检测标准。图为科研人员正在进行
有关爱滋病检测试剂的研究。(多维社资料)
 
成都市爱滋病防治管理条例将于今年5月生效，规定不准爱滋病毒阳性者结婚。规定命令
警察在逮捕高风险人群五天之内，为他们进行检测，高风险人群包括妓女和吸毒者，并要
求把那些被检测阳性者分开监禁。

规定要求，在国外一年以上的中国人必须进行爱滋病检测，规定还建议，如果没有防止爱
滋病传染的药品，爱滋病患者的怀孕应当被说服流产。没有公布的规定内容还包括，禁止
爱滋病毒携带者和患者担任幼儿园老师或外科医生。违反者将受到大额罚款。

中国采取控制疾病传播的严厉措施并不罕见，但罕见的是成都的立法引起公众批评。成都
工人日报强烈批评这一立法。文章在评论规定的立意是好的，但政府不应当把爱滋病毒携
带者和患者当作动物看待。这一法律的后果可能不是制止爱滋病传播，而是减少对他人的
关心。

设在北京的联合国爱滋病项目也批评了成都的立法。这些辩论已经见效：最初的法律草案
禁止爱滋病毒携带者和患者进入公共游泳池和公共浴池。后来规定改为，禁止性病患者进
入上述公共场所，而不是限制爱滋病患者。

就全国来说，北京还在考虑如何处理爱滋病危机。中国发现首例爱滋病已经15年了，但中
国防治爱滋病的资金投入仅仅相对于泰国的三十分之一。


Chinese City Is First to Enact Law on AIDS 
Controversial Rules Set for Infected People, High-Risk Groups 

By John Pomfret
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 15, 2001; Page A16 

CHENGDU, Sichuan, China -- Tang Yan is a 21-year-old literature student. 
These days she's been reading a lot about AIDS.

"It's so frightening," she said, nursing a beer with her boyfriend in one of 
this southwestern city's many bars. "I didn't realize it was so bad in China."

A recent government decision to publicize the country's AIDS crisis has made 
the disease a hot topic in China. After years of silence, Chinese media now 
say as many as 1 million people in the country could be infected with HIV, 
the virus that causes AIDS.

It has become particularly hot in Chengdu because this sprawling capital of 
Sichuan province, known for its spicy cuisine and laid-back lifestyle, has 
become the first city in China to adopt legislation dealing directly with 
people infected with the virus. Chengdu has 38 registered HIV-positive 
residents, although the number could be much higher, because AIDS statistics 
in China are unreliable. The government maintains there are only 20,000 
HIV-infected people nationwide.

The Chengdu City AIDS Prevention and Management Regulations, which go into 
effect in May, prohibit AIDS patients and people who have tested positive for 
HIV from marrying. They order police to test people in high-risk groups, such 
as prostitutes and drug users, within five days of an arrest, and require 
separate incarceration facilities for those who have tested positive.

The regulations mandate AIDS tests for returning Chinese who have been abroad 
for more than a year, and they suggest that pregnant women with AIDS may be 
persuaded to abort their fetuses if medicine that could prevent the 
transmission of the virus to the child is unavailable. A part of the law that 
has not been made public, as can happen in China, also bans people with HIV 
or AIDS from working as kindergarten teachers or surgeons, among other 
professions. Violators are subject to large fines.

Legislation to regulate behavior and Draconian measures to control the spread 
of disease are not unusual in China -- a country that has strict laws aimed 
at promoting "genetically superior births." What's unusual in Chengdu is that 
some of the restrictions have caused a public outcry.

The Chengdu Worker's Daily strongly criticized the law. It recently quoted 
one official as arguing that "the rights of the minority should be sacrificed 
for the sake of the majority." The newspaper commented that while the rules 
are well-intentioned, the government should not treat people with AIDS and 
HIV like animals. The most likely result of the law, the newspaper said, 
would not be to stem AIDS, but to reduce concern for other people.

The U.N. AIDS program in Beijing has criticized the legislation, as have 
Chinese experts. "It's terrible," said He Xiong, a Beijing-based government 
AIDS official, who said he opposed the new law on moral and public health 
grounds. "If you control AIDS patients, it's not effective for controlling 
the disease," he said, arguing that more money should be spent on prevention 
and education rather than punishment.

The debate has had an effect. In an earlier draft of the law, people with HIV 
or AIDS would have been banned from public swimming pools and public baths, 
which are popular in this area. That restriction was later limited to people 
with sexually transmitted diseases other than AIDS, said Wang Liangji, a 
member of the Chengdu People's Congress and one of the authors of the 
legislation. "We need to strike a balance between ways to limit the spread of 
the disease and human rights," Wang said in an interview. "There was a lot of 
criticism of this part. So we changed it."

At the national level, China is still brooding over how best to deal with 
AIDS, 15 years after its first recorded death from the disease. Resources for 
prevention and education are scarce; China spends less than one-thirtieth of 
what Thailand spends on AIDS, for example.

Tough decisions have to be made about which sectors of society will get the 
most attention for prevention, who will get limited funds for drugs, which 
drugs will be made available and how much people infected through blood 
transfusions will be compensated.

Wang noted that in Chengdu, as in other places in China, there is a lot of 
fear about AIDS, and that has created support for tough legislation.

"The pressure from common people has been great," he said. "There is a 
terrorized feeling about AIDS in general society. We are under a lot of 
pressure to do something about it. That's why we drew up this legislation."

Luo Zhen, a 45-year-old construction foreman, for example, said AIDS patients 
should be "locked up and isolated from the rest of us. . . . Don't talk to me 
about human rights. China has too many people, and we are not rich like you. 
If AIDS explodes here, there won't be any end to it."

"I have an 18-year-old daughter," he continued, somewhat red-faced. "I don't 
know if she's a virgin and I'm not going to ask. But you can't go asking me 
to teach her about sex. Chinese families don't work like that. So the only 
solution, I see, is to lock those guys up!"

Wang said the alternative is to maximize education and prevention. Chengdu's 
new law mandates AIDS education for bar hostesses, high school students and 
many others.

Back in the bar, Tang Yan said that all of her classmates are having sex. 
"But I don't think anyone is being safe about it. The problem is that 
drugstores make it hard to buy protection," she said, referring to condoms.

"Yeah," added her boyfriend, Fei Bingnan, "they make you feel like a 
criminal. . . . If China wants to deal with AIDS, we shouldn't do it by isola
ting AIDS patients. We should do it by helping society to change."