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Written in the Preface
Nowadays, when you open Weibo, there are various celebrity gossip and trivial news every day.
There are countless hot searches every day, but they are fleeting.
What’s the reversal of the sexual assault case of a girl, what’s the dispute over Coco Lee’s estate, many readers and friends in the background asked me to write, but I refused.
In this era of entertainment to death, I want to leave some meaningful words.
Because in my heart, the story of two elderly people and AIDS is more worthy of being remembered by 1.4 billion Chinese people.
Their names are: Gao Yaojie, Wang Shuping.
You may be unfamiliar, but I want to tell you that they once saved the lives of millions of Chinese people.
But the mainstream media in our country has always been evasive.
Now it’s time for you to know their story.
This is also a story about two whistleblowers.
The ending is the same as that of Dr. Li Wenliang.
At the end of 2019, the movie “The Whistleblower” was released.
I didn’t expect that I could see such a film in China in my lifetime, although it has been deleted beyond recognition because of its sensitivity.
But the experience of whistleblowers in the real world is much more shocking than in the movie.
At the end of the story—
She was dismissed from public office, divorced, alienated, fled, and wandered overseas, and finally died in a foreign land.
Those who retaliated against her are now high above, with their children and grandchildren.
Look, how magical the stories in this world are:
Those with a dark heart and ruthless hands enjoy their old age, while those who save all beings die in a foreign land.
Killing and arson bring gold belts, while building bridges and repairing roads leave no corpses.
How explosive would it be if their story was made into a movie?
01
This is a story about AIDS and two elderly people.
On the distant east coast of the Pacific, a Chinese old lady in her nineties has lived in Harlem, Upper Manhattan, New York, for nearly ten years, which is known as “the poorest and most crime-ridden area in the United States”.
She lives in a humble and simple apartment, with hearing loss, and the sound of dripping water from the roof from time to time…
She often sits in the damp room, her eyes like torches.
The old lady, with her “Chinese characteristic” bound feet, often hides in the room to write, eats frugally, and occasionally comes out in a wheelchair to bask in the sun.
People around her don’t know her origin, but they feel that the elderly Asian face is a bit strange.
She looks lonely, with few relatives and friends; but at the same time, she seems very lively, with a constant stream of visiting students or scholars.
Her name is Gao Yaojie.
This name once appeared on the awards stage of “People Who Moved China” in 2003;
The first lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton’s guest of honor;
And on the plane from Guangzhou to the United States in August 2009…
02
Time goes back 30 years.
In that era, the situation was turbulent, and a magical China emerged.
But more magical things happened in Henan, where the blood plasma economy that shocked the world was once staged.
Stretch out your arm, reveal the veins, stretch out a fist, fifty yuan
In the late 1980s, the health product market began to develop rapidly in China. Blood, as a raw material for biological products, was purchased in large quantities, and market demand expanded rapidly. The “blood plasma economy” followed the logic of profit and made rapid progress.
At that time, the local government of Henan Province proposed “If you want to get rid of poverty and become rich, quickly take the road of selling blood.”
Due to the support of the local government and the encouragement of blood vendors, the blood plasma economy quickly formed an industry, and the official also put forward the propaganda slogans of “If you want to become well-off, quickly sell blood plasma” and “Not selling blood is not patriotic”.
The old man’s son died of AIDS (infected by selling blood)
The grandson is also a virus carrier (mother-to-child infection)
Around the early 1990s, the blood in the bodies of Henan farmers became cheap raw materials for those “factories”.
Blood stations were another kind of factory in various cities and counties in Henan at that time, private, private, and legal. Underground factories were even more spread throughout the cities and towns, countless.
Blood is money.
Some people sell blood crazily, repeatedly drawing blood dozens of times within a week, and their blood is almost drained to death.
Some people don’t go to work, but live on the money from selling blood every day, and even call their 7-year-old children to join them.
But what’s deadly is that some of the people who sell blood have AIDS, and some have hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
——The blood disaster in Central China.
03
A woman named Wang Shuping appeared.
She is the first hero to expose the Henan AIDS blood case.
In 1991, Wang Shuping began working at a blood station under the district health bureau.
Soon after, she discovered a terrible safety loophole in the “blood selling economy” that was in full swing in Henan at that time—
People with HIV and hepatitis viruses sell blood, the blood products of blood stations are contaminated, and then spread to healthy blood donors and tens of thousands of innocent healthy people through different channels.
This is a very terrifying thing!
Wang Shuping suggested that the blood station should conduct HIV testing on all blood donors, and all blood stations should stop collecting blood, and report the proposal to the provincial health department overnight—
But it was shelved, and no one knew the reason.
In the spring of 1993, on the plains of eastern Henan, an HIV virus from a blood donor from Kunming quickly infected more than 10 people.
The gift of fate has already marked the price in secret.
People are infected every day, and people are selling blood every day… Blood stations are still open, private, military district, Red Cross, and they are still in business. If this continues, at least 1,000 people will be infected in the whole district every day.
There was no way. In order to solve the urgent need, Wang Shuping founded the Zhoukou Clinical Testing Center at her own expense at the end of 1994.
She extracted 404 blood samples from blood donors in the Zhoukou area, and then discovered the shocking number of HIV positive infections. She was worried that the results were inaccurate, and used several different reagents in succession, but the results were shocking.
“I immediately reported this result to the director of the local health bureau at that time. The director said, you have done a great thing for Zhoukou.”
Wang Shuping said that the director had just taken office not long ago.
Wang Shuping’s report to the Zhoukou District Health Bureau
Half a month later, she went to the director again to report, but did not receive any reply.
“I know, they want to suppress this matter, so I will go to Beijing myself.”
Wang Shuping did what she said. At the end of 1995, she went to Beijing alone with 62 HIV-positive blood samples and found the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, hoping to get an authoritative identification here.
A blood sample test costs 700 yuan, and it costs more than 40,000 yuan to do all 62 samples. This is an astronomical figure for Wang Shuping, who paid for her own travel expenses to Beijing to seek results. It’s not that she feels sorry for the money, she really has no money.
She stopped her salary at the beginning, and spent all the money on sampling and preliminary screening.
She cried on the spot, squatting in the hospital hall and crying loudly. She didn’t know what to do, and what to do for so many innocent and pitiful people.
Perhaps it was God’s pity.
Zeng Yi, the chief expert in epidemiology and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, happened to see her. Wang Shuping told Zeng Yi about the whole process.
“When Academician Zeng heard this, he was very nervous. He said don’t take this money, do 15 samples first.”
The identification results of the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine came out soon: 13 of the 15 blood samples were confirmed to be HIV positive, and 2 were suspected.
You know the story later—
In March 1996, the country began to ban large and small blood stations for the purpose of making profits from blood plasma collection. In Henan, the blood station ban storm that started on the night of March 14 of that year was later called the “3.14 case”.
Yes, she made a contribution, she is a hero.
However, no matter in which era or country, it is necessary to pay a huge price to tell the truth.
In 1996, a leader asked her if she could change the numbers on her report. She said that she couldn’t change it, and the leader could change it himself. The leader asked her again, why others didn’t find the AIDS epidemic, but why she found it? Wang Shuping said that now is not the time to discuss who found the problem, but to quickly close the blood station.
Soon after Wang Shuping returned to Zhoukou from Beijing, a retired health bureau director quietly said to her: “Don’t work here, someone is going to find trouble with you.”
Wang Shuping didn’t listen, she said she had a clear conscience.
Wang Shuping met many people who came to the center to make trouble, and was repeatedly asked how many blood samples she sent to Beijing? What tests did she do? Then, from the beginning of 1996 until 1997, Wang Shuping’s salary was stopped.
“Whistleblowing” is a dangerous thing, because it will touch some dark interests, so Wang Shuping must pay a heavy price.
Her husband at the time worked in the Ministry of Health. Because his wife “blew the whistle” to expose the “blood disaster”, he was also excluded in the organization, and the two finally divorced.
In November 1996, Henan Province held an AIDS prevention conference. Wang Shuping had a conflict with a leader who was speaking at the meeting. More than 10 days later, this leader went to Zhoukou to inspect the work and went to the clinical testing center specifically, and said to several medical staff who were working: “You don’t have to do it, this is not qualified.” Immediately, the clinical testing center was closed, Wang Shuping was removed from her position, and merged with other personnel into the Zhoukou District Health and Epidemic Prevention Station.
In December 1996, the Ministry of Health was going to award a prize to those who had contributed to AIDS work. Zeng Yi nominated Wang Shuping, but Henan Province did not report her name.
After the center was closed, Wang Shuping wrote three or four reports to the Ministry of Health, reporting the situation of her and her colleagues, but not only did it not work, but the situation worsened each time she reported.
In 2001, she finally chose to leave her motherland. Unfortunately, she did not help her colleagues get back the salary that was stopped.
Her English name there is Sunshine, which means sunshine.
In that year, the AIDS crisis in Central China was recognized, and at least 500,000 people were infected with the AIDS virus after selling blood at blood stations, of which Henan was the province with the most serious AIDS epidemic.
“I encountered huge troubles, involving the conflict between power, money, and those without money and power. I decided to stand up for the innocent people infected with hepatitis C virus and AIDS virus.” She once recalled her original intention.
On August 23, 2001, the Information Office of the State Council held a press conference in Beijing and officially disclosed the AIDS epidemic in Wenlou Village, Shangcai County, Henan Province.
The day before, the reporter who first reported the epidemic in Wenlou Village received a notice that he would not be employed by all media in the province.
Many years later, Wang Shuping recalled that she was not alone, and someone took her life to blow the whistle.
It’s worth it.
04
One is the first hero to expose the Henan AIDS blood case, and the other is the first person in China to prevent AIDS.
But in that history, Gao Yaojie’s life has never intersected with Wang Shuping’s, but their fates are the same.
Gao Yaojie was a college student before the Cultural Revolution, and graduated from the Medical College of Henan University in 1954.
When she retired in the 1990s, she was already a gynecological expert who was famous throughout Henan Province, and she had also been received by national leaders many times.
At that time, Gao Yaojie, who was in her 60s, had both children, fame and fortune. She could have enjoyed a wealthy and stable old age and slowly moved towards the end of her life.
However, a female patient completely changed Gao Yaojie’s life trajectory.
In 1996, Gao Yaojie, who had already retired, was asked to consult at a hospital. She met a rural woman who was on her deathbed, and her HIV test result was positive.
In that era, people did not have a particularly clear understanding of AIDS, but only had a vague concept – having extramarital affairs and taking drugs could possibly lead to AIDS.
The patient’s husband told her that his wife could not have any problems herself, as she had had a uterine fibroid surgery and had received a blood transfusion.
Could it be the blood that caused her to contract AIDS?
Gao Yaojie was shocked, because this meant that the hospital’s blood bank had been contaminated, and the victims were far more than one!
She began to investigate and uncovered the “blood disaster” that shocked China and even the world: The “plasma economy” promoted by local governments in Henan Province and other places in the 1990s led to the large-scale spread of the AIDS epidemic.
This was also the first case in China of AIDS infection through blood transfusion. After that, Gao Yaojie, with her aging body, went to rural Henan many times to conduct field investigations. Through continuous investigation and evidence collection, she was almost certain that it was the problem of “blood”!
In December 2003, Wu Yi, then Vice Premier of the State Council, went to Wenlou Village in Henan to visit AIDS patients.
Wu Yi, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, tightly held the hand of AIDS patient Zhang.
After the visit to Wenlou, Wu Yi had a closed-door talk with Dr. Gao Yaojie in Zhengzhou for 3 hours. Wu Yi asked her: “Someone told me that the main ways of AIDS transmission in China are drug transmission and sexual transmission?”
Gao Yaojie angrily said: “Here, blood transmission is more common!”
In 2004, in order to prove that the blood disaster was not only unique to Henan, nor did it only exist in the Central Plains region, but was a widespread phenomenon across the country, Gao Yaojie and 15 volunteers embarked on a secret investigation of the AIDS epidemic in five southern provinces (Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan).
More than a month later, a travel-worn Gao Yaojie returned home with a travel bag full of materials.
Her old partner, Guo Mingjiu, saw that she had finally returned and complained: “You scared me to death. Many people have been looking for you these days, and I said you went traveling… Quickly hide your precious materials.”
He kept nagging Gao Yaojie, recalling the past of being persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. Because he was worried about another house search, he hid Gao Yaojie’s materials in the pile of waste on the balcony.
The next day, Gao Yaojie went to Shandong. Two days later, she returned and saw her old partner with a worried face, tears in his eyes, and said to her: “I burned all your investigation materials from the south. These materials will cause trouble. Our whole family can’t survive. I’m really afraid, don’t blame me.”
Gao Yaojie cried on the bed after hearing this.
Her investigations became more and more difficult. In some AIDS villages, if anyone could report that Gao Yaojie had come, they would even receive a reward of 500 yuan.
She was once set up as a model by the official, was rated as an “Advanced Individual Caring for the Next Generation” by the Chinese Ministry of Education, was selected as one of the “50 Public Intellectuals Who Influenced China”, and was elected as one of the “Top Ten Annual Figures of 2003” by China Central Television.
However, as she relentlessly exposed the heavy darkness behind this “man-made disaster” that spread in the Central Plains, Gao Yaojie gradually became the focus of monitoring and crackdown by the Chinese authorities. Her personal freedom was controlled, her phone was monitored, and she was followed by police when she went out.
In August 2009, Gao Yaojie began her exile at the age of 82.
“I hope everyone is healthy, why should I be poor alone”
“I had to come to the United States because the situation was very critical at the time. They politicized my AIDS work, and I was afraid they would arrest me.” Gao Yaojie recalled the thrilling escape ten years ago, “I didn’t bring my dentures, I didn’t eat lunch, I only brought a hard drive containing AIDS investigation materials.”
“I have experienced three escapes in my life: escaping Japan at the age of 11, escaping the civil war at the age of 18, and escaping to the United States at the age of 82.”
Since then, Gao Yaojie has been deserted by everyone. Her old partner had already passed away, her children refused to acknowledge her, and her relatives did not understand her, regarding her as a “sinner of the country” and a “traitor in exile overseas.”
She once received a letter from her daughter: “You are walking a path that is reviled by the people. Keep doing this, and you will die in loneliness and solitude.”
No one knows that the old woman’s eyes, full of vicissitudes, once witnessed the “Central Plains Blood Disaster” that occurred in Henan, China decades ago; and her not-so-nimble three-inch golden lotus feet once traveled across the mountains and rivers of the motherland, calling out for a group of poor people suffering from AIDS.
That was a lonely night watchman.
Those whistleblowers crawling on the edge of a knife.
Who remembered her?
Yes, in this era, in this country of ours, things are gradually getting better.
But you need to know how that “good” came about?
It is because of so many people like Wang Shuping and Gao Yaojie that they paid a price you can hardly imagine.
They left in silence, and you may not even know her name.
I have always believed that in any era and in any country, the price of telling the truth will be so great.
A beam of light shines into the iron tower, and the filth and ugliness in the iron tower are revealed, and this beam of light is guilty.
Our elders all say that the bird that sticks its head out gets shot. Yes, Wang Shuping and Gao Yaojie were such birds, and in the end, her fate was very tragic, with her husband and children separated, and a life in exile.
I also know that many people think they are very smart, know how to handle things, know how to protect themselves, are accustomed to being silent, and are complacent.
But what he doesn’t know is: Some birds come to the world to do what they think is right, rather than specifically hiding in the dark corners to avoid bullets.
Gao Yaojie is now curled up in a dilapidated apartment in Harlem, Upper Manhattan, New York, looking at her motherland across the ocean, with white hair and piercing eyes.
“I have been escaping all my life. I can’t go back, and my ashes must go back.”
That is Gao Yaojie’s last wish.
A long sigh—
The story goes back to the beginning.
Wang Shuping passed away on September 21, 2019, in a remote place in the United States, and no one knew she had been there.
In her last interview with the media before her death, she said: “I didn’t consider my own fate.”
As the article was written, tears couldn’t help but fall.
Why is it that good people don’t get good rewards?
I wrote this article all night, for no other reason, but to wish the world:
—Remember her.
The whistleblower who will never disappear.
This time, let’s light up the likes for the hero.
Thank you for risking your life for the people at the bottom of China!
References:
“My AIDS Prevention Road”, Gao Yaojie
“Ten Years of Reporting on the Discovery of AIDS in Henan”, Southern Metropolis Daily
“Gao Yaojie: Shouting on the Volcano”, Southern Weekend
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