China's xenophobic response to HIV - "Capitalism loving disease"

HIV doesn't discriminate. People do. There is no HIV resistant super race of humans either, something that perhaps the Chinese authorities may have to learn the hard way. Unfortunately that will come at the cost of lives, as they die from lack of treatment either from lack of knowledge about the disease or the discriminatory treatment applied to HIV+ people in China.

Xinjiang and its Uyghur people also have a longer history with HIV/AIDS than the rest of the country. In fact, until the early 2000s, reports show that China pointedly referred to the epidemic in the region as “a Uyghur disease,” an “evil from abroad”, and “Àizībìng” (艾滋病)—a pun on “Àizībìng” (爱资病), which means a “capitalism-loving disease”—in its national media. 

The Chinese Ministry of Health was also known to say that, thanks to the “superior [Han] immune system” and their “Neo-Confucian values,” most Chinese would not be affected by the disease. “The government inaction surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Uyghur community certainly reflected the low status of the Uyghur people in the eyes of the government,” says Fay. 

Dr. Anna Hayes, a leading researcher on the region’s HIV and heroin epidemics, reiterates Fay’s warning that accurate, cohesive information about China’s HIV/AIDS epidemic in Xinjiang is hard to find. “The levels of data in these reports are not enough,” Hayes tells Hopes&Fears. “You want statistics that drill down to county levels and it just isn’t available. Numbers, modes of transmission, comparing trends across years, it’s all missing.” Hayes pointedly notes a time period of about four years where China’s “official” numbers on the HIV/AIDS epidemic didn’t change by a single case—a highly suspect claim. 

A 2012 Chinese-language report published in the country’s Bulletin of Disease Control and Prevention shows that in 2011, HIV prevalence in Xinjiang was the fifth highest in China, with prevalence rates more than triple the national level. Uyghurs ages 20-39 were shown to make up the overwhelming majority of such infections. Another 2012 report from the Chinese Ministry of Health shows that in 2011, more than 50% of intravenous drug users (IDUs) in Xinjiang’s Ghulja district tested HIV-positive. more