[陈光诚 Chen Guangcheng] Advocate for China’s Weak Crosses the Powerful

Du Bin for The New York Times
Chen Guangcheng, wearing sunglasses, in 2002 with a group of farmers with disabilities who were not being given required tax exemptions.

July 20, 2006
Advocate for China’s Weak Crosses the Powerful

By JOSEPH KAHN
BEIJING, July 19 — Only a few years ago, Chen Guangcheng, a blind man who taught himself the law, was hailed as a champion of peasant rights who symbolized China’s growing embrace of legal norms.

Mr. Chen helped other people with disabilities avoid illegal fees and taxes. He forced a paper mill to stop spewing toxic chemicals into his village’s river. The authorities in his home province, Shandong, considered him a propaganda coup and broadcast clips from his wedding ceremony on television.

All that changed last year, when he organized a rare class-action lawsuit against the local government for forcing peasants to have late-term abortions and be sterilized. Mr. Chen, 35, is now a symbol of something else: the tendency of Communist Party officials to use legal pretexts to crush dissent.

A court in Yinan County of Shandong Province is scheduled to hear charges as early as Thursday that Mr. Chen destroyed public property and gathered a crowd to block traffic. His lawyers argue that he would have had trouble committing those crimes even if he could see. At the time they were said to have occurred, he was being guarded day and night by a team of local officials.

His case is typical of efforts to punish lawyers, journalists and participants in environmental, health and religious groups who expose abuses or organize people in a manner officials consider threatening. Like Mr. Chen, they are often accused of fraud, illicit business practices or leaking state secrets, charges that do not reflect the political nature of their offenses.

“Local officials made Chen’s house into a jail and turned him into a prisoner long before he faced any charges,” said Li Jinsong, one of his lawyers. “Then they concocted charges so they could send him to an actual jail.”

The purview of Chinese law was broad enough to allow a self-taught peasant like Mr. Chen, dubbed a “barefoot lawyer,” to emerge from obscurity and help set some legal precedents in his home province. Since he got into trouble, Mr. Chen has relied on a network of scholars and lawyers in Beijing to defend him.

But the law does not protect those who offend the powerful. Local Communist Party officials control prosecutors and judges in their domains, and they can use the legal system to carry out political persecutions.

“China has advanced to the point that officials have to pay attention to the law,” said Teng Biao, a legal expert at the China University of Political Science and Law and a supporter of Mr. Chen. “But in some cases, they put a superficial legal cover on an essentially illegal action.”

Officials in Shandong declined to answer questions about Mr. Chen, saying they could not discuss a pending court case.

Nature dealt Mr. Chen his biggest challenge. He lost his sight after a childhood illness and did not attend school until he was 18. When he did go to school, he quickly encountered legal problems.

China’s government exempts the blind from taxes and fees. But Mr. Chen often did not receive such benefits, according to relatives who asked to remain anonymous because the authorities have threatened to punish them for speaking to reporters. Determined to realize his legal rights, he studied law on his own, recruiting his four older brothers to read legal texts to him.

In 1994 he went to Beijing to protest violations of laws protecting the handicapped. While there, he took action against the Beijing subway authority because attendants would not let him ride free. He got favorable media attention and free subway tokens after that.

Rakishly handsome in his dark glasses, he became a popular legal crusader. He handled cases against the local sanitation bureau, the police and the bureau of commerce. A paper factory that spewed noxious waste into a river near his home was forced to suspend operations, making him a local hero.

So when residents of his home village of Dongshigu were ensnared in a coercive birth control campaign last spring that appeared to violate national laws, they turned to Mr. Chen.

Officials in the city of Linyi, which has a population of more than 10 million and contains Dongshigu, forced thousands of residents to undergo abortions or sterilization, according to people supporting Mr. Chen who cited local documents to support their claims.

Such tactics, common in the early days of China’s strict population control policies 25 years ago, are now illegal. The law says the authorities can levy fines only against people who exceed birth quotas. But forceful measures remain pervasive, because failure to reach population control targets can end an official’s prospects for promotion.

Mr. Chen publicized the allegations as he prepared a class-action lawsuit. The problem received widespread attention in the international news media and was at least initially taken seriously in Beijing.

The National Family Planning and Population Commission investigated. It reported last September on its Web site that it had uncovered abuses in Linyi and that it had taken steps to punish officials there.

But that did not protect Mr. Chen, his family or his neighbors in Dongshigu from retaliation.

When Mr. Chen visited Beijing in September to seek legal help, Linyi officials tracked him down, bundled him into a car and drove him 400 miles back home, Mr. Chen’s lawyers said.

From then until his formal arrest in June, Mr. Chen was confined to his house or to a government-run hotel. His telephone line was cut. There is no provision in Chinese law for informal incarceration of this kind, his lawyers say.

Mr. Chen’s relatives and neighbors in Dongshigu say the authorities stationed up to 70 uniformed and plainclothes police officers or hired thugs in the village. The police prevented Mr. Chen and his supporters from communicating with the outside world. In a dozen different encounters, they beat lawyers and journalists who tried to enter the village, lawyers involved in such encounters said.

Supporters of Mr. Chen said that the local authorities had long intended to take legal action against him but that they had been stymied by the fact that he had not committed any crime. By June they at last announced the grounds for his arrest: destroying property and blocking traffic.

The first charge refers to a confrontation in February between Dongshigu residents and the uniformed and plainclothes police officers guarding Mr. Chen in his home. Villagers pushed a police van and two government cars into a gully. They said they were enraged that the officers, described as idling away the hours outside Mr. Chen’s home, declined to make one of their cars available to take an ailing woman to the hospital during the Lunar New Year holiday.

The indictment against Mr. Chen says he told people to damage the cars. Villagers say that he had no role in the clash and that he was not permitted to meet or talk to villagers at the time.

The second charge stems from an incident in March. Mr. Chen was described as distraught that a friend had been beaten by local officials. He demanded to talk to someone in charge. In a change of tactics, his guards let him visit the village party headquarters and then hail a car on the main road to take him to the county center.

Guards followed him to the road and helped him flag down cars, witnesses to the event said. They then took photographs of Mr. Chen in the roadway with cars stopped around him — which were used as evidence that he had blocked traffic, his lawyer said.

Such charges might appear easy enough to contest in court. But Mr. Chen’s lawyers face formidable obstacles.

Mr. Li and other lawyers helping Mr. Chen said they had received death threats when visiting Linyi, one of which Mr. Li recorded on his cellphone. He said the police had declined to investigate. Villagers say they have been warned not to appear as witnesses for Mr. Chen.

When Mr. Li tried to enter the village early this month to take depositions, he said, he was surrounded by thugs. They told him to leave the area. When he refused, they pushed his car into a ditch and rolled it onto its roof. Mr. Li and a fellow lawyer were lightly injured. Much of the confrontation was captured surreptitiously on videotape by a supporter of Mr. Chen.

“We can hardly have high expectations of a fair trial,” says Mr. Teng, the legal scholar, “when criminals are in charge of the law.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/20/world/asia/20blind.html?ex=1174190400&en=5a22a4826b6ee55e&ei=5070

Seeking a Public Voice on China's 'Angry River' ［December 26, 2005］

Du Bin for The New York Times
Guan Fullin, lefr, with her daughter Li Mei by the Nu in Xiaoshaba.


December 26, 2005
Rule by Law
Seeking a Public Voice on China's 'Angry River'

By JIM YARDLEY
XIAOSHABA, China - Far from the pulsing cities that symbolize modern China, this tiny hillside village of crude peasant houses seems disconnected from this century and the last. But follow a dirt path past a snarling watchdog, sidestep the chickens and ducks, and a small clearing on the banks of the Nu River reveals a dusty slab of concrete lying in a rotting pumpkin patch.

The innocuous concrete block is also a symbol, of a struggle over law that touches every corner of the country.

The block marks the spot on the Nu River where officials here in Yunnan Province want to begin building one of the biggest dam projects in the world. The project would produce more electricity than even the mighty Three Gorges Dam but would also threaten a region considered an ecological treasure. This village would be the first place to disappear.

For decades, the ruling Communist Party has rammed through such projects by fiat. But the Nu River proposal, already delayed for more than a year, is now unexpectedly presenting the Chinese government with a quandary of its own making: will it abide by its own laws?

A coalition led by Chinese environmental groups is urging the central government to hold open hearings and make public a secret report on the Nu dams before making a final decision. In a country where people cannot challenge decisions by their leaders, such public participation is a fairly radical idea. But the groups argue that new environmental laws grant exactly that right.

"This is the case to set a precedent," said Ma Jun, an environmental consultant in Beijing. "For the first time, there is a legal basis for public participation. If it happens, it would be a major step forward."

China's leaders often embrace the concept of rule of law, if leaving open how they choose to define it. For many people in China's fledgling "civil society" - environmentalists, journalists, lawyers, academics and others - the law has become a tool to promote environmental protection and to try to expand the rights of individuals in an authoritarian political system.

But trying to invoke the law is risky. Chinese nongovernmental organizations, few of which existed a decade ago, have taken up the Nu as a major cause. But the activism on the Nu and other issues has provoked deep suspicions by the Communist Party even as a broader clampdown against such NGO's has forced some to shut down. The government knows China has a drastic pollution problem and has passed new environmental laws. But top leaders also demand high economic growth and need to increase energy supplies to get it. The "green laws" are becoming a crucible to test which side will prevail and whether ordinary people can take part in the process.

The closed process that led to the Three Gorges Dam is what opponents of the Nu dams most want to avoid. In the late 1980's, a wide range of intellectuals and others tried in vain to force public hearings to discuss the environmental and social costs of a project that has flooded a vast region and forced huge relocations. Ultimately, opponents could only muster a symbolic victory as the final vote in the National People's Congress included an unusually high number of abstentions or nay votes.

The central government is still deliberating how to proceed on the Nu. Domestic media coverage has been banned in recent months. Three central government ministries refused interview requests, as did provincial officials in Yunnan. Local officials along the Nu River, after initially agreeing to an interview, failed to reply to a list of written questions.

Out in the jagged mountains along China's remote southwestern border, villagers in Xiaoshaba gather information about their future from rumors. In early December, a team of surveyors inventoried property and measured the narrow terrace of village farmland along the Nu. Several villagers say local officials have told them that everyone would be relocated around the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, which ends in early February - even if the dams have not yet been approved.

"If they tell me to move," said one villager, Zhang Jianhua, "I have no other choice."

A Legal Reprieve

In the spring of 2003, a slender, studious man named Yu Xiaogang learned that the hydropower industry was eyeing the rivers of southwestern China. Mr. Yu, an environmental resources manager, knew that China believed that hydropower was a cleaner alternative for its energy shortages and that the Nu was considered one of the country's richest, untapped resources. But he and others believed that the Nu would be untouchable.

The Nu, which translates as Angry River, roars out of the Tibetan Plateau east of the Himalayas and plunges through steep canyons just inside the border with Myanmar, formerly Burma, as it careers south before crossing the border.

In China, it passes through a mountainous region with more than 7,000 species of plants and 80 rare or endangered animals and fish. Unesco said the region "may be the most biologically diverse temperate ecosystem in the world" and designated it a World Heritage Site in the summer of 2003.

"We were very happy because we thought the Nu would be protected and would have no problems," said Mr. Yu, who also led Green Watershed, an environmental NGO.

But not long after the World Heritage designation, a state-run provincial newspaper announced that a public-private consortium planned to build 13 dams on the river. The project would be the largest cascade dam system in the world, and it appeared politically unstoppable.

The majority partner, the China Huadian Corporation, was a state-owned goliath; the local government was a minority partner. In Beijing, the State Development and Reform Commission, a powerful government ministry, had approved the dams in August and planned to present the plan to the State Council, or the Chinese cabinet, for final approval. Construction would begin in September 2003.

The environmental community was blindsided. More than 50,000 people, most of them from ethnic minority hill tribes, would be relocated. The Nu also was one of only two free flowing rivers in China. The State Environmental Protection Administration, or SEPA, the country's environmental watchdog, criticized the project in its official newspaper. But SEPA was considered one of the weakest ministries in the central government.

Then, a snag arose - a bureaucratic delay, hardly uncommon in China. August became September and the proposal had not yet been presented for final approval. During the delay, a new environmental law took effect on Sept. 1. Based on an American model, the China Environmental Impact Assessment Law required comprehensive environmental reviews in the planning stages of major public and private development projects.

Decades of relentless economic growth had left China with dire pollution problems and squandered natural resources. President Hu Jintao had made "sustainable development" a new government mantra. The assessment law gave the environmental agency new powers to handle and approve environmental reviews before a project was approved. It also called for public participation, including hearings, as part of the review, though it did not detail specific guidelines.

But it would take public pressure to force action on the Nu case. Despite its uniqueness and natural beauty, the Nu was not well known, largely because of its isolated location.

In September 2003, an environmental conference in Beijing brought together academics, government environmental officials and NGO's to discuss the Nu. A month later, Pan Yue, the outspoken vice minister of the environmental agency, organized China's first "Green Forum," a public relations event that included Chinese music and film stars.

One person at the forum was a woman named Wang Yongchen, a member of Green Earth Volunteers, an environmental NGO in Beijing. Initially, the Green Earth Volunteers had concentrated on tree planting and teaching children about the environment. But in recent years, the group had participated in efforts to stop a dam proposal in Sichuan Province.

At the forum, Ms. Wang persuaded 62 celebrities and film stars to sign a petition in support of "natural" rivers. She would later donate money to build 30 libraries in poor villages along the Nu.

By early 2004, the controversy had attracted worldwide interest as 60 international organizations agreed to lobby the Chinese government about the Nu. Hundreds of volunteers in China called Unesco to protest the dam proposal. The country's most prominent NGO, Friends of Nature, embraced the cause, while an environmental group in Sichuan collected more than 10,000 signatures to stop the project.

But the crucial factor was the Sept. 1 law. As the project appeared to be nearing approval, biologists, academics and environmentalists all argued that the government had not properly conducted an environmental review.

In late winter, as Ms. Wang guided a tour of Chinese journalists, her cellphone rang. A friend informed her that Prime Minister Wen Jiabao had temporarily suspended the project so that it could be "carefully discussed and decided on scientifically."

Ms. Wang began to cry with joy. Later, some Chinese newspapers speculated that Mr. Wen's edict meant that the project was dead.

Mr. Yu thought otherwise.

"I thought this was the first success of public participation," he said. "But I did not think the decision was final."

Opening a Closed Process

Located a short drive from the city of Liuku, Xiaoshaba is like countless poor villages along the Nu. Peasants live in crude homes, some under the same roof as their livestock and chickens. Some villagers have never gone farther than Liuku; some have never left the village. But on a May afternoon in 2004, a bus arrived. Inside was Yu Xiaogang, and he wanted to take villagers on a trip.

The prime minister's order to suspend the project had stunned developers and provincial officials. A delegation had hurried to Beijing to try to restart the process. At the same time, the government's environmental agency focused on the assessment review.

Mr. Yu was anxious to get villagers involved because the law had highlighted public participation. Most villagers knew nothing about the project or how it would change their lives.

"I thought we must let the Nu River people have their voice," Mr. Yu said.

So he offered to take a small group of villagers to the site of the Manwan Dam on the upper reaches of Mekong River in the southern Yunnan. In 2002, Mr. Yu had written an assessment of the social costs of the Manwan project, a report later endorsed by the prime minister at the time, Zhu Rongji. Leaving from Xiaoshaba, Mr. Yu took 14 peasants on a daylong journey to the Manwan, where they found many people living as scavengers.

"They heard how the government made promises but didn't follow through," Mr. Yu said. "Ten years later, nobody cared about them. The Nu River people were shocked."

Mr. Yu later led a small group of peasants to a Beijing hydropower conference jointly sponsored by the United Nations and China's National Development and Reform Commission. As several speakers extolled the virtues of dams, the dusty group of peasants sat in the upper reaches of the auditorium. Mr. Yu was allowed to speak at a sub-session of the conference. The villagers had practiced giving speeches but were not granted a speaking slot.

Meanwhile, momentum seemed to be shifting in favor of dam supporters. Prime Minister Wen had visited Yunnan to confer with provincial officials. Two prominent scholars toured the Nu - on a trip sponsored by dam developers - and attracted wide public attention by attacking the environmentalists.

But that criticism was insignificant compared to a broader governmental crackdown under way against nongovernmental organizations.

In the spring of this year, President Hu ordered an intensive examination of NGO's because of concerns of the role that environmental groups had played in helping to topple governments in Central Asia. In a secret speech to top officials, Mr. Hu warned that the United States was using such groups to try to foment social unrest.

Before, NGO's had hoped that onerous licensing restrictions were about to be repealed. Instead, environmental groups and other NGO's across the country were closely scrutinized, with some losing their licenses. Some groups began to fear that the "legal space" granted to the civil society would be tightened, or closed.

In Yunnan, officials began to pressure opponents. Mr. Yu would not comment about whether he had come under pressure. But acquaintances say he that has been forbidden from traveling to international conferences and that officials have put pressure on him.

In Beijing, the environmental assessment report was finished by this summer. But the Ministry of Water Resources, noting that government reports about international rivers were considered proprietary information, declared a small section of the assessment to be a state secret and forbade its release.

Dam opponents said the section could remain secret but argued that publicizing the rest of the report was essential for public discussion of the project. The government still had not outlined the potential environmental risks or explained what would happen to relocated villagers.

So on Aug. 31, opponents mailed a letter to the State Council and later posted it on the Internet. It cited Chinese law and said any decision without public participation "lacks public support and cannot tolerate history's scrutiny."

Nearly four months later, the government had not responded.

An Uncertain Future

A traffic sign on the narrow, unpaved road that passes through Xiaoshaba carries a propaganda message: "A Model Village for Democratic Rule of Law." A short walk away, beside the concrete block marking the proposed first dam, Guan Fulin, 55, said she had spoken to the surveyors who measured the village land in early December.

"The officials told us it is definitely going to happen," Mrs. Guan said. She trusted that the government would take care of her but admitted that she did not yet know how she would be compensated or where she would go. Pointing to the village, she said, "All these people will be moving."

If so, it would likely signal the start of a hydropower gold rush in Yunnan Province. One study estimated that China might build enough new dams, most of them in Yunnan, to double its hydroelectric output in the next five years. One plan would inundate one of the most popular tourist attractions in China - Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Part of the frenzied hydropower development is driven by the thirst for new energy supplies. But part of it is caused by the breakup of the state monopoly that once controlled electrical generation in China. That breakup left regional state-owned energy giants who were each assigned "assets" - like rivers or coal deposits. Each faces competitive pressures to develop new power plants quickly in order to claim market share.

Mr. Ma, the environmental consultant in Beijing, said environmentalists understood that China faced a complex challenge in developing new energy sources even as it must reduce pollution. But he said this intense pressure to develop was why laws that provide oversight and public review must serve as safeguards.

"Before the Nu River proposal, you would hear about opposition to certain projects," Mr. Ma said. "But it was all based on the tremendous courage of individuals. This time, we see progress in Chinese law that makes it possible for a more systemic challenge."

He added: "There is now more awareness of environmental rights and the rights of people as citizens. For such a major problem, they believe they have the right to know about it and at least have their views heard."

The dispute over the Nu seems at a standstill. Ultimately, the decision on holding hearings may fall to the prime minister. Earlier this year, Unesco issued a statement expressing its "gravest concerns" about the potential damage to the World Heritage Site. In October, environmentalists boycotted a dam conference linked to the National Reform and Development Commission. Organizers had promised to show parts of the assessment report, but environmentalists believed it was an effort to avoid full public hearings.

Ms. Wang, of the NGO Green Earth Volunteers, described the dilemma in simple terms.

"If the law is not enforced, what shall we do?" she asked. "We have this law. Why doesn't this law work?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/26/international/asia/26china.html?ei=5070&en=61836ab3a42ed9ba&ex=1174190400&pagewanted=print

Legal Gadfly Bites Hard, and Beijing Slaps Him [December 13, 2005]

Miranda Mimi Kuo for The New York Times

Gao Zhisheng, now in hiding in northern China, has made a career of using the legal system to promote human rights and combat official malfeasance.

Gao Zhisheng, right, an aggressive lawyer harassed by Beijing, in a secret location in northern China.

Rule by Law | The Limit-Tester
Legal Gadfly Bites Hard, and Beijing Slaps Him

By JOSEPH KAHN
BEIJING, Dec. 12 - One November morning, the Beijing Judicial Bureau convened a hearing on its decree that one of China's best-known law firms must shut down for a year because it failed to file a change of address form when it moved offices.

The same morning, Gao Zhisheng, the firm's founder and star litigator, was 1,800 miles away in Xinjiang, in the remote west. He skipped what he called the "absurd and corrupt" hearing so he could rally members of an underground Christian church to sue China's secret police.

"I can't guarantee that you will win the lawsuit - in fact you will almost certainly lose," Mr. Gao told one church member who had been detained in a raid. "But I warn you that if you are too timid to confront their barbaric behavior, you will be completely defeated."

The advice could well summarize Mr. Gao's own fateful clash with the authorities. Bold, brusque and often roused to fiery indignation, Mr. Gao, 41, is one of a handful of self-proclaimed legal "rights defenders."

He travels the country filing lawsuits over corruption, land seizures, police abuses and religious freedom. His opponent is usually the same: the ruling Communist Party.

Now, the party has told him to cease and desist. The order to suspend his firm's operating license was expanded last week to include his personal permit to practice law. The authorities threatened to confiscate it by force if Mr. Gao fails to hand it over voluntarily by Wednesday.

Secret police now watch his home and follow him wherever he goes, he says.

He has become the most prominent in a string of outspoken lawyers facing persecution. One was jailed this summer while helping clients appeal the confiscation of their oil wells. A second was driven into exile last spring after he zealously defended a third lawyer, who was convicted of leaking state secrets.

Together, they have effectively put the rule of law itself on trial, with lawyers often acting as both plaintiffs and defendants.

"People across this country are awakening to their rights and seizing on the promise of the law," Mr. Gao says. "But you cannot be a rights lawyer in this country without becoming a rights case yourself."

Ordinary citizens in fact have embraced the law as eagerly as they have welcomed another Western-inspired import, capitalism. The number of civil cases heard last year hit 4.3 million, up 30 percent in five years, and lawyers have encouraged the notion that the courts can hold anyone, even party bosses, responsible for their actions.

Chinese leaders do not discourage such ideas, entirely. They need the law to check corruption and to persuade the outside world that China is not governed by the whims of party leaders.

But the officials draw the line at any fundamental challenge to their monopoly on power.

Judges take orders from party-controlled trial committees. Lawyers operate more autonomously but often face criminal prosecution if they stir up public disorder or disclose details about legal matters that the party deems secret.

The struggle of Mr. Gao and others like him may well determine whether China's legal system evolves from its subordinate role into something grander, an independent force that can curtail abuses of power at all levels and, ultimately, protect the rights of individuals against the state.

"We have all tried to shine sunlight on the abuses in the system," says Li Heping, another Beijing-based lawyer who has accepted political cases. "Gao has his own special style. He is fearless. And he knows the law."

An Air of Authority

Mr. Gao can cite chapter and verse of China's legal code, having committed it to memory in intensive self-study. He is an army veteran and a longtime member of the Communist Party.

On a recent trip to rural Shaanxi Province, where he sneaked into a coal mine to gather evidence in a lawsuit against mine owners, he wore a crisp white shirt and tie and shiny black loafers, as if preparing for a day in court.

He is also a flagrant dissident. Tall and big-boned, he has the booming voice of a person used to commanding a room. When he holds forth, it is often on the evils of one-party rule. "Barbaric" and "reactionary" are his favorite adjectives for describing party leaders.

"Most officials in China are basically mafia bosses who use extreme barbaric methods to terrorize the people and keep them from using the law to protect their rights," Mr. Gao wrote on one essay that circulated widely on the Web this fall.

After an early career that racked up notable courtroom victories, he has plunged headlong into cases that he knows are unwinnable. He has done pro bono work for members of the Falun Gong religious sect, displaced homeowners, underground Christians, fellow lawyers and democracy activists. When the courts reject his filings, as they often do, he uses the Internet to rally public opinion.

His fevered assaults have a messianic ring. But although he became a Christian this fall and began attending services in an underground church, the motivation to pursue the most sensitive cases - and put his practice and possibly his freedom at risk - began a couple of years earlier. It was then that his idealistic beginnings as a peasant boy turned big-city lawyer gave way to simmering rage.

Mr. Gao was born in a cave. His family lived in a mud-walled home dug out of a hillside in the loess plateau in Shaanxi Province, in northwestern China. His father died at age 40. For years the boy climbed into bed at dusk because his family could not afford oil for its lamp, he recalled.

Nor could they pay for elementary school for Mr. Gao and his six siblings. But he said he listened outside the classroom window. Later, with the help of an uncle, he attended junior high and became adept enough at reading and writing to achieve what was then his dream: to join the People's Liberation Army.

Stationed at a base in Kashgar, in Xinjiang region, he received a secondary-school education and became a party member. But his fate changed even more decisively after he left the service and began working as a food vendor. One day in 1991 he browsed a newspaper used to wrap a bundle of garlic. He spotted an article that mentioned a plan by Deng Xiaoping, then China's paramount leader, to train 150,000 new lawyers and develop the legal system.

"Deng said China must be governed by law," Mr. Gao said. "I believed him."

He scraped together the funds to take a self-taught course on the law. The course mostly required a prodigious memory for titles and clauses, which he had. He passed the tests easily. Anticipating a future as a public figure, he took walks in the early morning light, pretending fields of wheat were auditoriums full of important officials. He delivered full-throated lectures to quivering stalks.

By the late 1990's, though based in remote Xinjiang, he developed a winning reputation. He represented the family of a boy who sank into a coma when a doctor mistakenly gave him an intravenous dose of ethanol. He won a $100,000 payout, then a headline-generating sum, in a case involving a boy who had lost his hearing in a botched operation.

He also won a lawsuit on behalf of a private businessman in Xinjiang. The entrepreneur had taken control of a troubled state-owned company, but a district government used force to reclaim it after the businessmen turned it into a profit-making entity. China's highest court backed the businessman and Mr. Gao.

"It felt like a golden age," he said, "when the law seemed to have real power."

That optimism did not last long. His victory in the privatization case made him a target of local leaders in Xinjiang, who warned clients and court officials to shun him, he said. He moved to Beijing in 2000 and set up a new practice with half a dozen lawyers. But he said he felt like an outsider in the capital, battling an impenetrable bureaucracy.

The Beijing Judicial Bureau, an administrative agency that has supervisory authority over law firms registered in the capital, charged high fees and often interfered in what he considered his private business.

One of his first big cases in Beijing involved a client who had his home confiscated for a building project connected with the 2008 Summer Olympics. Like many residents of inner-city courtyard homes, his client received what he considered paltry compensation to make way for developers.

When Mr. Gao attempted to file a lawsuit on his client's behalf, he was handed an internal document drafted by the central government that instructed all district courts to reject cases involving such land disputes. "It was a blatantly illegal document, but every court in Beijing blindly obeyed it," he said.

In the spring of 2003, Beijing was panicking about the spread of SARS, a sometimes fatal respiratory affliction, and Mr. Gao was fuming about forced removals. He gave an interview to a reporter for The China Economic Times arguing that SARS was much less scary than collusion between officials and developers.

"The law is designed precisely to resolve these sorts of competing interests," he said in that interview. "But their orders strip away the original logic of the law and make it a pawn of the powerful and the corrupt."

An Empty Promise

Mr. Gao is not the first lawyer to test China's commitment to the law. Even in the earliest days of market-oriented economic reforms, when the legal system was still a hollow shell, a few defense lawyers quixotically challenged the ruling party to respect international legal norms.

One such advocate is Zhang Sizhi, a dean of defense lawyers, who has accepted dozens of long-shot cases that he views as advancing the law. He defended Jiang Qing, Mao's wife, when she faced trial after the Cultural Revolution. He also represented Wei Jingsheng, perhaps China's best-known dissident.

Mr. Zhang argues that lawyers have prodded the party to develop a more impartial judiciary. But, he says, they must do so with small, carefully calibrated jolts of legal pressure.

"The system is improving incrementally," he said. "If you go too far, you will only hurt the chances of legal reform, as well as the interests of your client."

That view may reflect a consensus among seasoned legal scholars. But Mr. Gao is 37 years younger than Mr. Zhang, far less patient, and after his initial burst of idealism, deeply cynical.

If Mr. Zhang's benchmark for progress is that every criminal suspect has the right to a legal defense, Mr. Gao's became the 1989 Administrative Procedure Law, which for the first time gave Chinese citizens the right to sue state agencies. By his reckoning, it remains an empty promise.

"The leaders of China see no other purpose for the law but to protect and disguise their own power," Mr. Gao said. "As a lawyer, my goal is to turn their charade into a reality."

Following his defeat in the Beijing land dispute he plunged into the biggest land case he could find, a prolonged battle over hundreds of acres of farmland that Guangdong Province had seized to construct a university. Legally, he hit another brick wall. But he fired off scores of angry missives about the "brazen murderous schemes" of Guangdong officials. The storm of public anger he helped stir up got his clients more generous compensation.

Mr. Gao said he was told later that the party secretary of Guangdong, Zhang Dejiang, had labeled him a mingyun fenzi, a dangerous man on a mission. "He was right," Mr. Gao said.

This summer, a fellow lawyer-activist named Zhu Jiuhu was detained for "disturbing public order" while representing private investors in oil wells that were seized by the government in Shaanxi, Mr. Gao's home province.

Mr. Gao rushed to Mr. Zhu's defense with fellow lawyers, local journalists and tape recorders. He camped out in local government offices until officials agreed to meet him. He told one party boss that "he would forever be on the wrong side of the law and on the wrong side of the conscience of the people" unless he let Mr. Zhu go, according to a recording of the conversation.

After the intensive publicity campaign, Mr. Zhu was freed this fall, though under a highly restrictive bail arrangement that prevents him from practicing law.

Most provocatively, Mr. Gao has defended adherents of Falun Gong, a quasi-Buddhist religious sect that the party outlawed as a major threat to national security in 1999.

Mr. Gao has been blocked from filing lawsuits on behalf of Falun Gong members. But in open letters to the leadership, he said the secret police had tortured sect members to make them renounce Falun Gong. He described a police-run, extra-judicial "brainwashing base" where, he said, one client was first starved and then force-fed until he threw up. Another of his Falun Gong clients, he says, was raped while in police custody.

"These calamitous deeds did not begin with the two of you," he wrote in a letter addressed to President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. "But they have continued under your political watch, and it is a crime that you have not stopped them."

The Police Circle

The crackdown came first as a courtesy call.

Two men wearing suit jackets and ties, having set up an appointment, visited his office. They identified themselves as agents of State Security, the internal secret police, but mostly made small talk until one of them mentioned the open letter Mr. Gao had written on Falun Gong.

"They suggested that Falun Gong was more of a political issue than a legal issue and maybe it was best left to the politicians," Mr. Gao recalled. "They were very polite."

When they prepared to leave, however, one of them said, "You must be proud of what you have achieved as a lawyer after your self-study. Certainly you must be worried should something happen to derail that."

Mr. Gao said he talked to his wife and considered the future of his two children. He wondered whether he could still afford his Beijing apartment and his car if his business collapsed.

"Anyone who says he does not consider this kind of pressure is lying," Mr. Gao said. "But I also felt more than ever that I was putting pressure on this reactionary system. I did not want to give that up."

His resistance hardened. The Beijing Judicial Bureau handed him a list of cases and clients that were off limits, including Falun Gong, the Shaanxi oil case and a recent incident of political unrest in Taishi, a village in Guangdong. He refused to drop any of them, arguing that the bureau had no legal authority to dictate what cases he accepts or rejects.

This fall, he said, security agents have followed him constantly. He said his apartment courtyard has become a "plainclothes policeman's club," with up to 20 officers stationed outside. He and his wife bring them hot water on cold nights.

On Nov. 4, shortly after being warned to retract a second open letter about his Falun Gong cases, Mr. Gao received a new summons from the judicial bureau.

This time, the bureau provided a written notice that said it had conducted routine inspections of 58 law firms in Beijing. Mr. Gao's, it was discovered, had moved offices and failed to promptly register the new address, which it called a serious violation of the Law on Managing the Registration of Law Firms. He was ordered to suspend operations for a year.

When the requisite public hearing was held, Mr. Gao sent two lawyers to represent him. But he boarded a plane for Xinjiang, where he had a medical case pending and where he wanted to inquire about abuses against members of an underground Christian church.

The edict was not only not overturned after the hearing, it was broadened. By late November, the bureau issued a new notice demanding that Mr. Gao hand over his personal law license as well as his firm's operating permit. Both had to be in the hands of the bureau by Dec. 14. The authority would otherwise "use force according to law to carry it out."

When he received that second order, Mr. Gao had escaped his police tail and traveled to a location in northern China that he asked to keep secret. He was conducting a new investigation into torture of Falun Gong adherents. A steady stream of sect members visited him in the ramshackle apartment he is using as a safe house. He tries to meet at least four each day, taking their stories down long hand.

"I'm not sure how much time I have left to conduct my work," Mr. Gao said. "But I will use every minute to expose the barbaric tactics of our leadership."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/13/international/asia/13lawyer.html?ei=5070&en=4b7de40d9df45c05&ex=1174190400&pagewanted=print

高耀洁在华盛顿：中国非法血库仍在运作

2007.03.14
高耀洁在华盛顿：电邮被封，中国非法血库仍在运作

正在美国首都华盛顿准备参加一个颁奖典礼的中国河南“民间抗艾第一人”高耀洁医生在14号上午的记者会上披露，她的电邮现已被封，而且现在在中国仍然有地下血库在非法采血、卖血。她还感谢美国国会参议员希拉里－克林顿以及美国国务院为争取她来美国作出的努力，不过她对自己回到中国后的前景感到担心。自由亚洲电台记者申铧参加了记者会并发来以下报道。

听报道 http://www.rfa.org/service/audio_popup.html
下载声音文件 http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/shenrubaodao/2007/03/14/m0314-lh.mp3

美国保护世界妇女权益的组织“重要之声环球合作伙伴关系”将在14号华盛顿时间晚上召开“2007环球领导奖”颁奖典礼。一共有8人将获此殊荣，他们分别来自印度、苏丹、孟加拉、危地马拉以及中国。来自中国的四位妇女代表将集体获得“2007环球领导奖”下面的“人权奖”，她们是河南享有“民间抗艾第一人”的高耀洁医生、北京大学法学院妇女法律研究与服务中心主任郭建梅、北京红枫妇女心理咨询服务中心创办人王行娟以及《农家女百事通》杂志主编谢丽华。

今年80高龄的退休医生高耀洁之所以获奖，是因为她在1996年在河南发现了第一例因为输血感染艾滋病的病例，并在此后的10多年里，不辞辛劳地用自己的积蓄帮助艾滋病人、宣传艾滋病知识、公布血液传染艾滋病的真相。

官方血库是表面关闭，地下血库不但没关闭还增加了。像贵州25个县卖血，最近发现广东有人都卖过十年的血，而且是夜里12点到早晨6点卖血。

高耀洁

由于高耀洁医生为了能来美国领奖在中国遭遇了颇多挫折，再加上艾滋病在中国仍然具有敏感性，所以高耀洁成为记者会上最受记者关注的人物。她首先对美国方面为了她能够成功来美领奖作出的努力表示了感谢：

“我能够出来站在这里跟大家说话，首先要感谢希拉里女士和美国国务院的努力。”

高耀洁是在二月初准备到北京办来美签证时被河南警方软禁的。河南省官员轮番到她家劝她放弃去美国领奖，并还给她的儿女施压要他们劝母亲不要去美国。后来，作为“重要之声”组织荣誉主席的美国国会参议员希拉里－克林顿给中国领导人写了一封信，再加上高耀洁本人的坚持和其他方面的帮助，中国最高领导层最终下令放行，至此高耀洁已被软禁在家达两个星期。当被问到她对河南省官员有什么话要讲时，高耀洁说：

“我认为是因为我在地方比较出名，个别人想升官，就在我身上开刀。”

高耀洁提到的徐光春是河南省委书记。这次是高耀洁第三次获得国际上的奖项，而前两次都被中国政府阻挠没有亲自出国领奖。这次能来美国领奖高耀洁感到很高兴，但对回中国后的前景则感到担心：


图片：获奖者从左到右依次为谢丽华，王行娟，郭建梅和高耀洁(RFA)

“现在我担心回去以后还有别的方法来打压我，我特别担心我的家人。我和儿子的邮箱都被关闭了。”

高耀洁说，回国后她将把这次获奖得到的奖金用来出版两本有关艾滋病的书：

“我要出两本书，一本2004年以前已经交给一个出版社了，这个出版社就是迟迟不出，我就要回来了，材料已经过期了，所以我在整理，这本书叫《爱滋殇》，另外还一个叫《十年访艾录》，这个编辑因为这本书，被炒鱿鱼了，他从上海跑到广东，把书稿带到了广东，所以两本书没有出。”

在记者会上，高耀洁不可避免地谈到艾滋病在中国的传播情况。她说，中国的艾滋病病毒和世界上其他国家的不一样，所以传播途径也不一样，在中国通过吸毒和性传播的比例较小，主要是血液传播。1990年代，中国很多省份大兴血浆经济，政府设立很多采血站，从血液中提取血浆，用来制药，然后把剩下的红血球分开，再把血输回到卖血人身上。由于这个过程管理不严，艾滋病很容易传播开来。当政府发现血液传播艾滋病的问题后，官方说这些采血站已被关闭。但是，高耀洁透露，这并不是事实，现在非法血库仍然存在：

“官方血库是表面关闭，地下血库不但没关闭还增加了。像贵州25个县卖血，最近发现广东有人都卖过十年的血，而且是夜里12点到早晨6点卖血。”

在高耀洁于二月初被河南省当局软禁的时候，河南省另一位艾滋病活动人士李喜阁也同时遭到软禁。李喜阁本人和两个孩子都因为在医院输血感染艾滋病。高耀洁向记者们通报了有关李喜阁的最新进展：

在高耀洁获准出国之前，中国政府卫生部副部长王陇德代表吴仪副总理看望了高耀洁。高耀洁很赞同王陇德对中国艾滋病疫情的看法：

“第一，王部长承认中国主要是血传播，到现在都没有制止住；第二个王部长承认宣传力度不够；第三个王部长承认救助不普遍，如果王部长这个思路能真正贯彻下去，我觉得这个问题会迎刃而解。因为底下和上面不一样，底下只想说好的。”

但是如何才能够使中央和地方官员的认识统一起来并使地方官员如实贯彻中央的政策呢？高耀洁表示她说不好：

“地方官员水平很低，他只想当官挣钱，买官再当大官，底下的腐败也很严重，所以我很难说。”

高耀洁还不忘在记者会上宣传她的博客。目前她的博客访问量已达到一百多万，上面有很多有关艾滋病的病例和文章。

自由亚洲电台申铧华盛顿报道。
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/shenrubaodao/2007/03/14/gao/

AIDS Doctor Fears Return to China 2007.03.15

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/social/2007/03/15/china_aids/


Dr. Gao talks with Mandarin service broadcaster Zhang Min. Photo: RFA


WASHINGTON—Leading Chinese AIDS activist Gao Yaojie says she fears further harassment from local authorities when she returns home after a U.S. trip during which she received a human rights award, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports.

“I am very concerned that the authorities will find new ways to keep me down when I return,” Gao, 80, told RFA’s Mandarin service during her trip. “I am particularly worried about my family. Both my son’s and my e-mailboxes have been closed.”

The government-run blood-banks are closed. But not only have the black market blood-banks not closed, they are on the increase again.

Retired Chinese doctor and AIDS activist Gao Yaojie

Gao, a retired gynecologist, was honored by the Vital Voices Global Partnership, a nonprofit group whose honorary chairwomen are U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas.

Officials initially detained her Feb. 1 as she went to collect a U.S travel visa. Under international pressure, she was ultimately permitted to make her first-ever trip to the United States.


Dr. Gao Yaojie. Photo: RFA
>> View Larger Image

Elderly and diminutive, Gao is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives in China, after she launched a one-woman crusade in the mid-1990s to expose the blood plasma donor business that triggered an HIV/AIDS epidemic in Henan province. It was she who found a link among a rising number of patients with AIDS: All had donated blood plasma at unsanitary collection centers, for about U.S. $5 per donation.

“The epidemic is different in China from anywhere else because I have spoken to AIDS groups here in the United States and they say it is mostly transmitted through sex and intravenous drug use. But in China, while I don’t deny the transmission of the virus through sex between men, and I don’t deny drug use, the largest part of transmissions occur through the blood trade,” Gao told RFA reporter Zhang Min.

Blood trade resurges

“Most of the cases I have seen weren’t transmitted sexually. They were transmitted through blood transfusions.”

Gao’s view isn’t popular in many circles, where local officials tend to report HIV infections as transmitted by intravenous drug use, making the illegal blood-trade less visible on the official record. She has been repeatedly harassed, had her phone cut off, and been held under virtual house arrest by local officials angered by her forthright style and tireless work on behalf of China’s AIDS patients and orphans.

In the early 1990s, commercial blood stations flourished in Henan. Some farmers who sold blood became infected with HIV through unclean equipment. Sellers sold blood by volume, so to reduce payments and allow farmers to recover faster, the stations often re-transfused them with red blood cells left after the valuable plasma was taken.

Now, Gao says the problem hasn’t been solved, just brushed under the rug.

“The government-run blood-banks are closed. But not only have the black-market blood banks not closed, they are on the increase again. Twenty-five counties in Guizhou alone are engaged in blood-selling. Recently they discovered some people in Guangzhou who had been selling their blood for 10 years, from midnight to 6 a.m.,” she said.

Blood-selling continues

She said AIDS often left the poorest and most vulnerable in society without hope or help. “I have seen a young child of 19 months die of AIDS and an old man in his 70s in a Henan hospital. The situation for women is even worse, because they can often be hit by AIDS via blood transfusions during childbirth, or they sell blood...And it’s not just in Henan. There are many other places where the problems are just as bad. In Shanxi it’s even worse than in Henan.”

In December, UNAIDS reported in its 2006 Epidemic Update that the Asia-Pacific region suffered 630,000 deaths from AIDS-related illnesses in 2006.

HIV infection risk is associated in Southeast Asian countries with unprotected commercial sex, sex between men, and unsafe injecting drug use, the Update said. The report blames the failure of governments to adequately address the role of sex between men in the epidemic.

In China, new infections are on the rise among injecting drug users, although half the new infections in China during 2005 occurred during unprotected sex.

The virus was spreading gradually from at-risk populations into the general population and there is a rise in the number of infections among women, the report said, although it was based on official Chinese government figures, which are affected by how local officials choose to report them.

A Feb. 24 article in the British medical journal The Lancet notes that China’s first AIDS case was identified in 1985 in a dying tourist. By 1998, HIV had reached all 31 provinces and had entered a phase of exponential growth, with 650,000 infections by 2005.

Local officials blamed

Gao lauded the Health Ministry in Beijing for taking an enlightened view of HIV/AIDS in China. But she wasn’t very optimistic that the vision of leaders in Beijing would ever be implemented on the ground. “The level of education of local officials is really very low,” she said.

“They just take public office because they want to make money and get promoted to a higher level. It’s very hard to say because the problem of corruption is also widespread at lower levels of government.”

She said the central government was likely to have backed her following an interview with RFA from her home by telephone in February. “During the time when I was under house arrest, my telephone was cut off...And Radio Free Asia’s Zhang Min got through. During the interview, I said I was under house arrest and being watched by many people.”

“I told Zhang Min that living was worse than death for me because I was under so much pressure. I believe what I said in that interview made a difference. I believe the interview played a decisive role. I believe when the Chinese leadership learned of what I had said during the interview, they decided to allow me to travel to the United States,” Gao said.

Original reporting in Mandarin by Zhang Min and Shen Hua. RFA Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written for the Web in English. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

高耀洁在自由亚洲电台接受专访 2007.03.16

"也许我是一个儒学出身，我读的‘四书’，我觉得道德在沦丧。" --高耀洁

http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/shenrubaodao/2007/03/16/gaoyaojie/

本台消息，被誉为中国“民间防艾第一人”的八十岁女医生高耀洁，3月14日晚在美国首都华盛顿举行的颁奖典礼上，接受了美国维护世界妇女权益的组织“‘重要之声’环球合作伙伴关系”颁发的“2007年环球领导奖”。来自五个国家共8位杰出人士获奖，其中有四位中国妇女：高耀洁、王行娟、谢丽华和郭建梅。高耀洁医生曾因申请来美国领奖，被当局有关方面软禁在家两周，后获准成行。颁奖典礼次日下午，高耀洁医生在华盛顿自由亚洲电台总部接受了本台专访。 以下是自由亚洲电台记者张敏的采访报道。

听报道
http://www.rfa.org/service/audio_popup.html
下载声音文件
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/shenrubaodao/2007/03/16/m0315-mz.mp3

3月14日晚上，来自中国河南的高耀洁医生在美国首都华盛顿“肯尼迪中心”接受了美国维护妇女权益组织“‘重要之声’环球合作伙伴关系”颁发的“2007年环球领导奖”。前美国第一夫人希拉里。克林顿是该组织的荣誉主席之一。

在颁奖典礼上，特邀颁奖嘉宾、资深美国女记者朱迪－伍德若芙介绍站在领奖台上的高耀洁医生。她谈到高耀洁医生十多年来为救助艾滋病人，公布艾滋病“血传播”真相所作的艰苦努力和成就。

高耀洁医生从领奖台上走下来，我问她此刻是什么心情，她说：“我心情很乱。”

问：“为什么？”
答：“我不知道我回去的命运怎么样。”

第二天下午，高耀洁医生走进自由亚洲电台的录音间：

记者：“高医生，您好！祝贺您得奖！”
高：“谢谢！”

问：“知道您几天长途旅行、与各方面交流，一定很辛苦，您身体怎么样？”
答：“我情形很好，身体可以”。

今年八十岁的高耀洁医生原是中国河南中医学院第一附属医院妇科教授、主任医师。她退休后，于1996年六十九岁的时候，开始关注艾滋病问题、病人和遗孤。 由于高耀洁等人的努力，2002年，河南和中国各地因卖血和血浆导致艾滋病蔓延问题，终于被揭露出来。

中国的公开宣传中一般认为，艾滋病主要是通过性传播和吸毒传播。而高耀洁医生十年来反复强调，中国近年通过卖血、输血、使用血液制品传播艾滋病，她统称为“血传播”，认为亟需全社会公开正视、采取对策。她批评当局不应该讳言艾滋病的“血传播”。

早在文革中因受迫害被打伤，作过胃切除百分之九十五手术的高耀洁医生，近十一年来走访了中国十几个县、市几千位艾滋病感染者，她为病人提供医疗服务，，并且作调查报道、著书、印发大量预防艾滋病的宣传材料。

高耀洁医生著有《中国艾滋病调查》、《一万封信：我所见闻的艾滋病、性病患者生存现状》等书，并与她的先生郭明久医生（现已去世）合著《鲜为人知的故事：艾滋病、性病防治大众读本》。

2001年，高耀洁获得全球健康理事会等三个国际卫生组织联合颁发的“乔纳森。曼恩世界健康与人权奖”；2003年获得有“亚洲诺贝尔奖”之称的“拉蒙。麦格塞塞”公共服务奖，这两次中国当局都没有允许她出国领奖，只得由他人代领。

十一年来，高耀洁自费印发了124万份预防艾滋病的宣传材料，她用曼恩奖两万美元奖金和美国福特基金会一万美元捐款，加印《艾滋病性病的防治》一书。 近年来她用自己获得的奖金和包括外出讲课等工作得到的报酬，一共大约一百万元人民币，用于帮助艾滋病患者和遗孤。

高耀洁医生被誉为民间防艾第一人。

今年2月2日，因为她要求来美国领取“2007年环球领导奖”，当局有关方面先不准许她赴美，把她软禁在河南家中两个星期。2月16日，通知她可以来美国领奖。

今年八十岁的高耀洁医生这是第一次出国。 今天我们有机会在录音间里面对面访谈。

记者：“高医生，您被软禁期间，我们在偶尔短暂打通电话的时候采访过您，那时候您已经被软禁十多天。现在您能够亲自来领奖，并且在繁忙中到我们自由亚洲电台总部，我们能够面对面，真是特别的高兴！

高：“谢谢！我觉得你们能说些真实的话，你们也很及时。那一次，我的电话只开通了半天，一直是被切断了，不知道为什么你打过去电话了，这样，大家听到我的声音了。 当时我被软禁，很多人都不知道，包括我们那个小区的人都不知道我发生了什么事情，当时不让我孩子上楼看我，我自己在楼上被关着。你那个时候（报道）声音发出来以后，就扭转了，大家知道我是为什么而被当地政府关，我不知道你咋打通了，就那半天，不到六个小时。”

记者：“之前我们也尝试过，但是打不进去。”
高：“那次不知道为啥通了。（当天）晚上又被关住（切断）了。

记者：“就那麽短暂的一会儿。
高：“以后又关住了，到16日（通知允许来美领奖）以后又开通了。但是直到我出来（23日），还是监控着。反正她监控我的电话时间长了，我也习惯了。包括看我的警察都不知道我犯的啥罪。”

问：“您怎么看外界听到您声音的重要性？”
答：“我觉得非常重要，起码知道这个真实情况。

问：“您在经历了这么多艰难之后，站在领奖台上，是什么样的心情？” 答：“我心情一个是非常乱，另一个我也很高兴。因为通过美国的希拉里女士和国务院、国务卿的努力，还有一个人专门天天写信。另外现在中国比过去开明，胡锦涛总书记和温家宝总理、吴仪副总理，能亲自关注这个问题，这是很了不起的事情，也是中国一个进步。 特别是在2月23日晚上，我见到卫生部主管艾滋病的副部长王陇德先生。我们在谈话中间，他流露出使我很高兴的三个问题。如果这三个问题能落实的话，就是中国艾滋病人的幸福，也是中华民族的幸福。 第一就是王陇德部长承认，中国的艾滋病主要是‘血传播’。我也认为是这样。我并不否认有‘性传播’和‘吸毒传播’、‘母婴传播’。看来现在是‘母婴传播’比‘性传播’还多。 但是主要的是因为穷，卖血，因为有病输血。 在2月份，元月份，山西和广东还有两个大的‘黑血站’卖血。有人卖，就有人输。 最近见，一个小孩2004年10月24日出生，2005年8月23日从沙发上摔下来，头上摔了个包，到医院去看，又是个男孩子，比较娇。医院给他输‘血小板’ 输了一袋。到了9月1日，又给他输了一袋，孩子从这儿以后就发病了。 2006年6月9日，这个孩子死了，艾滋病死了。（这孩子才）十九个月。 2006年2月19日，在河南最大的医院，因为胃出血输血，艾滋病又感染一个老先生。今年七十四岁，发病了。这是我亲眼看见的。 妇女情况比他们更严重。第一，是剖腹产、子宫手术、宫外孕手术，输血感染比较多。我名片上有我的‘博克’。在我那‘博克’上，我老伴去世半年，我收到因为妇科手术感染的四十多例，而且发生在一个县。还有人工流产，还有一个‘上（避孕）环出血也感染了。。。你们可以把博克上这些东西看看，看看这些情况。 有一家四口人就感染三口，已经死掉一口了，都是艾滋病。”

问：“关于妇女感染，这么多年来，您看总体上是一种什么情形？”
答：“在中国，大家不要把这个事情误会。老说‘河南’，‘河南’，这是错误的，其它地方不比河南轻，甚至比河南还重。”

问：“您能够确定的省份，能说一说，数一数吗？”
答：“我派人去过云南、贵州、广东、广西和四川。一次我雇了四部车、八个司机、十五个人，拿着我的东西（宣传资料），到这几个省看了。官方都是说‘我们这儿都是吸毒传播’。 跟着艾滋病人下农村了，发现爱滋村里到处跑着卖血，以招工为名，到屋里以后就天天抽（血），直抽到他（她）不会动了。”

问：“您说血传播，卖血是一个源头？”
答：“根源。”

问：“接下来是经过什么样的链条传播艾滋病？”

答：“卖了血以后，血到了血库。（1996年）我见第一个病人，就是血库的血输血感染的，是个妇女作子宫手术，这是很可怕的。再一个就是母亲再传播给婴儿，占百分之三十多一点。 中国艾滋病病毒传播和国外不同。在美国我见了一个艾滋病机构，这里的人多半是‘性传播’感染，同性恋和吸毒传播。而在中国，同性恋传播、吸毒传播，我不能否认，但我见的绝大多数是通过血。我去了安徽、山西、湖北、河北。”

问：“除了输血，血买上来之后还有什么用途？”
答：“还有输‘血小板’、（制做）血液制品。”

问：“血液制品。。。”
答：“白蛋白、球蛋白。”

问：“注射的白蛋白、球蛋白？”
答：“嗯。还有血小板、单采血浆。所以，这个血液感染源如果不断绝，王部长也承认，中国的艾滋病，民族（未来）都不敢设想。领这次奖在国际上是第六次。”

问：“您获国际奖这是第六次。有机会和国际组织、和一些人士接触，您最想告诉他们什么？最想表达的是什麽样的心情？”
答：“我最想表达的是，中国如果这样卖血、这样输血下去。。。因为他们夜间卖血——夜间十二点到早上六点，白天没人了。这样卖血下去，血液问题不能断绝，艾滋病继续传播，继续死人，孤儿不是继续增多吗？你光说‘救孤儿’，救得了吗？你不从根源上解决问题，艾滋病人能断绝吗？现在政府承认，每年以百分之三十到百分之四十往上升。这是很可怕的。另一方面，王部长也承认这个问题，宣传不利，大家都怕艾滋病，但是不知道这个艾滋病基本知识。 有人就这样公开说‘我不会得艾滋病，我又不嫖娼，我又不卖淫。’ 有一次，我到一个村庄，调查了一个居民组。我调查了三十八家，四十多口因为卖血感染艾滋病。这个是啥地方？少林寺底下登封石道乡。”

记者：“本来那个地方人们身体很健康的，习武的地方。”
高：“对啊。现在王部长也承认，一个是，宣传不力，另一个是现在发艾滋财。有人公开说‘我是世代中医、八代中医。。。专治艾滋病，治好多少多少’，艾滋病进中国现在不到二十年，这明显是骗子。 山西、陕西、河北、安徽。。。国家报道三十一个（省、市、区）没有一个（艾滋病）空白点，都发现感染。现在以救孤儿为名，有些人骗了很多钱。 现在应该赶快断绝血液感染源。否则，我们中华民族后果不堪设想。”

问：“您最初关注艾滋病人的时候，是您六十九岁那一年，现在您是八十岁，从六十九到八十岁，正是可以安享晚年的时候，您投入这么多力量，做一些救助工作，还要写书，投入了大量时间、精力和金钱，是什麽力量驱动您这样做？”
答：“当时，我不知道这个艾滋病的背后是这样复杂，有很多人干一、二年就不干了。我现在是欲罢不能。 我老伴不在了，我也没有那个情绪再干。可是，譬如吧，一个村上，这几个人都要死了，集中签上名，派两个人把孩子给我送去，说‘你老人家行行好吧，我们快离开这个世界了，你看看怎么样把孩子给我养起来’。你想一想，我八十岁，我会养大七岁、八岁、十岁的孩子？”

问：“您亲自过问照顾的一共有多少艾滋孤儿？”
答：“一百六十四人。现在有个情况，上令不能下达，下边的情况也不知道。2003年12月18日，我见吴仪副总理，她要见我的，她拍着我的肩膀‘你说你说’，说到假医假药的时候，她问我‘发现不了怎么办？’一会儿又说‘打不住怎么办？’，我说‘我也没办法’。 所以说，现在中国，最大的问题就是我代表我个人看法，也许我是一个儒学出身，我读的‘四书’，我觉得道德在沦丧。应该提倡遵守性道德，洁身自好，而不能认为‘避孕套’就是解决一切问题的唯一办法。。。 我真想退下来了，不好往下退，我跟他们一样。现在和我一块儿工作的人，好多人都不干了。”

问：“您特别想退，是怎么回事呢？”
答：“太难了，压力太大了。现在不但压到我，而且压到家属。还有人出来骂，我所以叫你看看我的‘博克’。（案例相关人）就是说‘我家在哪里，我叫啥，我的电话号码。。。你敢来？我的儿子就是输血死了。”

记者：“好，我们让更多人注意您的‘博克’
博克网址：//blog.sina.com.cn/u/1260580754

高耀洁医生：“我站在领奖台上的时候，你有没有看到我有点木呆？来自各方面的压力。”

问：“什么样的压力？”
答：“譬如，（2月14日）你给我打电话那会儿，警察正在那儿看着我呢，不准我出屋门，你电话就证实了。不但你证实，还去了好多外国记者，国外不相信。 在这种情况下，更不应该的就是，胡锦涛已经批过，同意我出国，可是还压着我的儿子给我磕头不叫我走。所以说，现在我想的很多很多问题（哽咽），我要不管吧，（艾滋病人）哭着找到我，好像找到救星。我要管吧，实在无能为力。 现在我还有两本书没出来，可是我是八十岁的人了，我。。。你没看到我站在领奖台上的时候，我跟他们的态度不一样。”

问：“您刚才说压力很大，还有什么压力？”
答：“从2000年我的电话就被监控了。那个时候的警察不像现在这样看得厉害，我往那儿走，去买个肥皂，买个笔，都跟着我。那个时候主要是怕我下乡去找艾滋病人。那时是我去找艾滋病人，现在是艾滋病人找我。”

问：“您2001年获得一个大奖‘曼恩世界健康和人权奖’；2003年获有‘亚洲诺贝尔奖’之称得‘拉蒙。麦格塞塞’公共服务奖，两次都没有获准出国领奖。是因为当局有关方面不让您来，这次被软禁两星期后，您能出来，您觉得是什麽因素促成您得以来美国领奖？”
答：“我觉得有两个因素，一个是外边压力，第二个是中国比过去开明了，上层和下层不太一样。胡锦涛总书记不是提出‘和谐社会’吗？既然提出，这样，你无故给我非法拘留，这不是不符合他这个精神吗？这个情况下，允许我出来的。 至于我回到家去以后，河南当地政府是如何态度，这个我难以想象。”

问：“在遏止艾滋病蔓延方面，您觉得中国当局有关方面、民间人士、国际社会，您能想到的特别希望他们做什么？他们有什么可做的？”
答：“特别希望他们能制止感染源。把非法卖血的‘血站’，跟老百姓讲清楚，不要再去卖血了！哎呀，那卖血的人哪，争先恐后地往上跑。”

问：“现在有报道说，中国非法的血站已经都关闭了，您看是不是事实？”
答：“绝对不是事实，因为我有报道。”

问：“您为什么说没关闭？”
答：“现在《华夏时报》是邓小平他儿子办的，二月份报道出来的。还有《新民晚报》，也是二月份报道出来的。”

问：“要是想真正让所有的‘黑血站’都关闭的话，需要做些什么？”
答：“需要扫除腐败。”

问：“从哪儿下手呢？做什么事？”

答：“我觉得最近人大提出来很好，以后提拔干部，性行为乱的，好色的病（笑）也不能提拔；贪污盗窃也是病，也不能提拔。如果把这一批人扫完，这个社会就会清亮了。”

问：“当局、有权力的人还可以做什么？”
答：“有权力的人本身应该以身作则。”

问：“按您想，遏止艾滋病的蔓延，民间人士能够做什么？”
答：“你发现没有？大陆的人跟国外的人意识不一样。因为从文革以后，道德的沦丧，一切向钱看，看谁能诈骗，谁能弄钱，谁就是英雄。”

问：“有没有一些人士也是同情您、帮助您的，您觉得这样的人们还可以扩大范围，做些事情，想过没有？”
答：“很难。他们也害怕。譬如我的孩子就害怕。”

问：“以您这样说，主要就是要当局有关方面握有权力的人、有决策权的人要来做事情？”
答：“起码要给这些民间的人松绑。”

问：“现在主要是被束缚。”
答：“害怕。”

问：“国际组织您觉得可以从哪些方面帮助您？”
答：“我觉得国际组织不了解真正的情况。这一次我见了好多议员，女议员。。。昨天下午希拉里亲自见我，还有那位穿红衣服的我忘了名字了，她也亲自见我。她们对待我说的这情况觉着好像是天方夜谭一样。我都拿着东西呢，我会把照片照出来。我希望让大家能知道真实情况。能促进中国政府对腐败官员加以处理。起码说，将来中国能走向真正富强。”

问：“您这次是第一次出国，和很多外面的人接触，也走了一些地方，沿途有什么感想，或者有趣的事情，您愿意讲一讲？一路看到美国的风光、城市，接触一些人，什么印象？”
答：“我倒觉着纽约像上海，再一个我觉得华盛顿比较干净。另外我特别感觉人与人比较真诚。再有，你譬如说几点钟干啥，就是几点钟干啥，不像中国拖拖拉拉，说五点，八点还看不到人呢，没有这个现象。”

问：“您近期还又什么打算？”
答：“我现在不是还有两本（想要出的）书吗？我已经托人找出版社能出来。因为我这个年龄，在世之日也就是倒计时的时间了。”

问：“书名是什么？”
答：“《十年防艾路》和《艾滋殇》。”

问：“您回国后还有什么进一步打算？”
答：“进一步的打算就是如果体制允许。。。”

问：“（从声音分辩不出）体质还是体制？”
答：“整个国家体制。我的身体。。。我现在可以雇车下去。”

问：“在这十年里，您身体有没有很吃不消的时候？”
答：“有。”

问：“到什么程度？”
答：“ 有。”

问：“到什么程度？”
答：“从脚肿到肚脐。有一次出去调查为艾滋病人照相，我血压高到二百二。所以现在就是出去，我也得雇车了，我已经不能再挤交通车了。近期可能我回去就要搞这两本书。还要安排这些孩子（爱滋孤儿），要升大学的、升高中的，我都要跟他们说说话。”

问：“您对年轻一代。。。您手下现在有没有更年轻的人和您一起工作？”
答：“有。”

问：“大约有多少人？”
答：“没数字。譬如，一来来五六个学生，帮助我捆（东西）。还有一个人带来七、八个人，回家挨了一顿打。”

问：“您能知道的数目大概是几百还是几千人？”
答：“大概有几百人。”

问：“您对年轻一代‘抗艾’的工作人员、一些志愿者，有什么样的希望？”
答：“他们是害怕。”

问：“后来在决定让您出来以后，您的儿女还有别的压力吗？”
答：“我估计现在还有，因为我拨不通电话。”

问：“家里电话又不通了？”
答：“又不通了。”

问：“多长时间了？”
答：“一直就没拨通，现在还拨不通。现在我急着要出书，我就说‘这几本书，谁要翻外文你们随便翻，只要别跟我要钱，我没钱’。”

问：“假如您回去以后，向外界发出声音要承受压力的话，您还会继续向外界讲吗？”
答：“当然要向外界讲了，我要是不向外界讲的话，我死在哪里谁知道啊。”

记者：“高医生，因为时间关系，我们今天只能暂时说到这里，非常感谢您在烦忙中接受我们的采访。祝您健康、快乐！一切顺利！”
高：“唉呦，我不会快乐（笑），既然走到这种份上。”

记者：“再次谢谢您！”

以上是自由亚洲电台记者张敏的采访报道。