God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

….but a serious background: It shows how Chinese authorities still deal with the issue of HIV and AIDS:

The same weekend the Mr Gay China pageant was cancelled, a prominent AIDS activist said his NGO was forced to cancel its 16th anniversary celebrations while a state-sponsored and UN-supported radio talk show dealing with HIV issues slated to air last Saturday has been postponed. Less than 24 hours after the police shut down Mr Gay China pageant which was to be held at a Beijing club for not possessing relevant license, Aizhixing, a prominent Beijing-based AIDS non-government organisation (NGO), was reportedly forced to cancel a gathering to mark the 16th anniversary of its founding. “We don’t know exactly why, and we did not really ask,” Dr Wan Yanhai, founder of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute, and a leading HIV/AIDS and LGBT human rights advocate in China, was quoted as saying in a CNN report. “The government might not believe in what we are doing. We hoped we could operate more openly in society. But it seems that the government will not accept this.” Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post and CNN also reported that what was to be the debut of the mainland’s first state-sponsored radio programme dedicated to HIV issues last Saturday has been postphoned.  The CNN report also quoted Zhang Wei, a spokesperson for the UN Development Program, as saying that the program, “Positive Talks,” was scheduled to start airing weekly on China National Radio but so far has not received final approval from the government.

Source: http://www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/2010/01/19/9558.china-aids-ngo-forced-to-cancel-16th-anniversary-celebrations?n=sec

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