Chinese AIDS Advocate Successfully Registers HIV/AIDS Organization With New Name
Chinese AIDS advocate Wan Yanhai, who was released from government custody last month after being detained for revealing "state secrets" regarding blood-selling practices in Henan province, on Thursday said that he had for the first time successfully registered his HIV/AIDS organization as a nongovernmental organization in China, Agence France-Presse reports. The registration of the Beijing AIDS Action Health Education Institute, formerly known as AIDS Action Project, is "an important step" because any unregistered organization in China is considered to be illegal. Although Wan was required to make some changes to the organization to comply with commerce bureau regulations, Wan said the work of the newly named organization would stay the same. He said he would continue to "publicize the problems of AIDS sufferers," including publishing a list of people who contracted HIV, even though government officials could again accuse him of revealing classified information. He added that, to his knowledge, "no law ... says that type of information is state secrets," and said that the goal of his organization remains improving the lives of HIV-positive people in China (Agence France-Presse, 10/18).
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