Alongside Brazil, Argentina is the most important player in South America. A fact the USA and China are aware of. Accordingly, the two world powers are courting the country intensively. For a long time, it seemed as if Beijing’s advances would be successful – China’s huge sales market and the substantial investments in infrastructure were already convincing arguments in other countries.
But now Argentina has a new president. Marcel Grzanna took a closer look at the election winner Javier Milei and his view of the superpowers USA and China. Unexpectedly, the USA and Europe have been presented with a huge opportunity. Because instead of making his country’s economic recovery dependent on China, Milei is counting on the support of the USA and Europe.
Meanwhile, Beijing is far more present in Hong Kong for the indefinite future. There, district elections were held at the weekend – the first since the wave of democratic protests four years ago. But what Jörn Petring reports on the ballot is sobering.
The vast majority of Hong Kongers have simply ignored the district elections. Many see the elections as nothing more than a sham. The city administration and central government in Beijing, on the other hand, are reacting almost euphorically.
We hope you have many new insights while reading
A tug-of-war for the favor of the gauchos: Javier Milei was only sworn in as President of Argentina on Sunday but he has long been caught in the middle of the geopolitical tussle between China and the United States.
The two largest economies have identified the South American country as an important player that needs to be won over. A US delegation thus made its way to Buenos Aires at the weekend to counter a charm offensive by China’s head of state Xi Jinping. Xi had previously addressed Milei in a handwritten letter.
Washington and Beijing are concerned about two things: raw materials such as lithium are available in large quantities in Argentina and awaken the desires of both tech nations. On the other hand, Argentina plays a significant role as a political power in South America, whose direction is important for its neighboring countries and thus for the entire continent.
Milei’s announcement that an Argentina under his government would not become a member of the BRICS Plus community of states, which Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are due to join on January 1, carried correspondingly great symbolic weight.
The decision did not come as a surprise. The new head of state had formulated his aversion to cooperation with China and other dictatorships too frequently and too decisively – including unmistakably in the direction of the US.
“Not only will I not do business with China, I will not do business with any communist. I am an advocate of freedom, peace and democracy. Communists don’t fit in, the Chinese don’t fit in, Putin doesn’t fit in,” Lilei said in an interview with the arch-conservative US journalist Tucker Carlson. He has been repeating ever since that his allies are the USA, Israel and the West.
Xi Jinping still tried to turn the tide with a handwritten letter. The tone: friendly, approachable, almost “pacifist,” as the South America expert Christopher Ecclestone from the London-based strategy firm Hallgarten & Company told the Voice of America. The general tone of the letter was “very formal, very welcoming, very nonthreatening,” with a “very capitalist” element.
The tone was in contrast to previous threats from Beijing, which had warned Milei not to turn away. But now the Chinese government is resorting to the usual pragmatism it always uses when it senses that threatening gestures are not working.
“China remains Argentina’s reliable partner,” promised the China Daily. The newspaper recalled the volume of trade between the two countries, which has grown from US$1.1 billion to US$21.3 billion since 2000. It also recalled important Chinese investments in Argentina’s infrastructure.
Milei has no objections to Chinese investments as long as they are private. His extraordinarily polite response to Xi’s letter indicates that he is in no way interested in a diplomatic escalation. But Milei also makes no secret of the fact that it is the Americans whose values he shares and whose support he seeks.
The US delegation in Buenos Aires has already promised help to constructively flank the talks between Argentina and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Since its national bankruptcy at the turn of the millennium, Argentina has repeatedly drafted and rejected crisis plans with the IMF. Milei is also seeking proximity to the IMF, which is dominated by the Americans, and is therefore also committed to the US dollar.
This is precisely why Argentina’s rejection of BRICS is a painful blow for Beijing. China already invited the South Americans to join in 2022. And until the election, it looked as if Argentina would join the forum. With Argentina and BRICS founding member Brazil, Beijing would have gained the two largest countries in South America as common allies. However, Milei clarified that he not only disliked the communists but also considered Brazil’s head of state Lula to be an enemy of democracy.
For Beijing, it would have been a further step towards countering the dominance of the US dollar with its own national currency, the renminbi – a declared goal of China, which it is promoting within BRICS. China’s growing influence on the South American economic organization Mercosur, which has been negotiating a possible free trade agreement with the EU for many years, is also being curbed.
Now that the battle lines have been drawn, Milei has to deliver. The idea of protecting himself from being taken over by China meets with the approval of the majority of his compatriots. Entrepreneur Santiago Farfan from Berlin, for example, supports the new man’s course of wanting to strengthen democratic values. Farfan’s family owns farmland in the Argentinian province of Jujuy.
The 42-year-old hopes that Milei will get to the root of the country’s greatest evil. “He must fight corruption. If he succeeds, the entire Argentine economy will benefit, and that would in turn make it easier for him to enforce distancing from China,” says Farfan in an interview with Table.Media.
Many Hong Kongers have expressed their resentment of the political situation in their city by not going to the ballot box. Only 27.5 percent of the more than four million eligible voters cast their ballots in the district elections on Sunday. Accordingly, voter turnout fell to a record low. The previous worst result was in 1988 when only 30.3 percent cast their vote. At that time it was still under British administration.’
The discrepancy with the previous district election four years ago is particularly large. Amid a wave of protests for more democracy, the pro-government camp suffered a crushing defeat in 2019. With a record voter turnout of more than 71 percent, it lost control of 17 of the 18 district councils.
Beijing ended the protests by introducing a strict law to protect national security. In addition, a comprehensive electoral reform was carried out. As a result, only candidates loyal to Beijing were allowed to stand in the district elections at the weekend. In addition, the number of democratically elected seats was drastically reduced. Only 20 percent of district councilors could still be directly elected by the people.
Many Hong Kongers wanted nothing to do with this “sham election,” as government critics called it. The polling stations remained empty, but shopping centers and cafés were well-frequented on Sunday. The European External Action Service (EEAS) called on those responsible in Hong Kong to restore the people’s confidence in the democratic processes laid down in the Basic Law.
For Beijing and the Hong Kong government, the election result is a defeat in more ways than one. The authorities had heavily promoted the election in the run-up to the vote. Posters were distributed throughout the city calling on people to take part in the election. They also warned that calls for boycotts would be severely punished.
Numerous companies were also on board. Chinese companies based in Hong Kong in particular urged their employees to go to the polls. Supervisors launched corresponding calls in WhatsApp and WeChat groups. Several Chinese banks even enlisted their employees to canvass for the pro-government candidates on the streets on Sunday.
Buses were organized from the neighboring Chinese city of Shenzhen to take voters living there directly to the polling stations in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific promoted the election with discounted tickets. There was also an embarrassing glitch: at the end of the election day, the computers at the polling stations went on strike, which is why the elections were extended by 90 minutes.
The official statements on the election from Beijing and Hong Kong naturally read very differently on Monday. The National Security Bureau spoke of a “fair and open” election, as reported by the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the election was of “high quality.” The new electoral system had proved to be “clearly superior.”
The Hong Kong and Macau office of the State Council, which is based in Beijing, also expressed its satisfaction. The election had been freed from “political gimmicks.” The new district councilors could now “concentrate on solving real problems in the community.”
The German government should place greater emphasis on the interests of the German economy in its dealings with China. This is what 52 percent of decision-makers in Germany expect from the traffic light coalition. 35 percent tend to be against it, 13 percent remain undecided.
This is the result of an exclusive survey conducted by digital media company Table.Media, in which over 3,000 high-ranking stakeholders have taken part since the beginning of September. They are registered in the Transparency Register of the German Bundestag and the majority comes from companies, associations and non-governmental organizations or science and administration. They are spread across sectors such as the automotive or energy sector, the construction or digital economy, as well as trade unions and environmental associations.
In the eyes of the decision-makers, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock shines with a particularly high level of professionalism. In mid-September – i.e. after the survey began – the Green politician described China’s President Xi Jinping as a “dictator.” On US broadcaster Fox News, she said at the time that if Russian President Vladimir Putin won the war in Ukraine, what kind of “signal would that be for other dictators in the world, such as Xi, China’s president”?
However, this apparently did not affect the assessment of her professionalism by decision-makers in Germany: with 445 mentions, she leads the ranking of the most professional minister, followed by Economics and Energy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) with 384 mentions.
Both also clearly exceeded expectations. For Baerbock, almost 49 percent responded to the question with “yes” or “rather yes,” compared to 42 percent for Habeck. This puts them in second and fourth place in the cabinet comparison.
In addition, almost 82 percent of decision-makers in Germany consider special efforts by the German government in climate and energy policy to be of rather high or even high importance. Around 85 percent also assume there will actually be a focus on energy policy in the next two years.
The respondents’ assessment thus takes into account that China now dominates the global market for renewable energy products and the corresponding supply chains: 80 percent of the products used to manufacture solar systems originate from there. Meanwhile, Germany wants to focus even more on renewable energies, partly due to its move away from Russia as a gas supplier. löh
When her real career begins, Gao Yaojie has already been retired for six years. It is April 7, 1996, when the trained gynecologist is asked for advice at Henan Hospital. While other doctors at the hospital are unable to come to a conclusive diagnosis, Gao discovers by chance that the patient has AIDS.
But this cannot be true. At that time, people in China believed that AIDS could only be transmitted through sexual intercourse or during pregnancy. Nothing applies to the patient, who casually mentions a blood donation. This is where Gao comes in.
In the years that followed, Gao Yaojie uncovered how local cadres and companies contributed to the spread of HIV throughout the country through their blood trade. She became a pioneer in the fight against AIDS, traveling repeatedly through the provinces to advise and treat stigmatized patients. When Gao finally became famous abroad, the Communist Party wanted to silence her. Gao died in exile on Sunday.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the sale of blood was a lucrative business, especially in rural areas such as Henan. So-called blood stations were set up in almost every village, where poor farmers in particular turned their blood into money. The business was promoted by local governments; HIV and AIDS were completely unknown.
Hygienic conditions at the “blood stations” were appalling: doctors extracted valuable plasma from the farmers’ blood. The remaining blood was collected in barrels and infused back into the villagers.
It was the starting point for Gao’s research. In Henan alone, she visited more than 100 villages and met thousands of affected families. “It’s bigger. It’s nationwide, everywhere. I saw it all with my own eyes,” Gao said later. The term “Aids villages” was born.
The authorities, on the other hand, tried to cover up the disaster. They ignored, trivialized and concealed it. Gao was also targeted. But she did not let the pressure and intimidation stop her. She had already experienced far worse, Gao said succinctly. And indeed, Gao had led a hard and deprived life until then.
Gao Yaojie (高耀潔) was born in 1927 in the eastern province of Shandong. As a child, she experienced the Japanese invasion, then, the Chinese Civil War, which brought the Communists around Mao Zedong to power. This was followed in the 1950s by the devastating famine caused by Mao’s “Great Leap.”
During the Cultural Revolution, Gao was persecuted by Mao’s henchmen because of her family background. Since that time, Gao has been limping, partly because she had to kneel on cold stone for hours on end. But both during the Cultural Revolution and later in the AIDS scandal, Gao remained steadfast.
She kept talking about the spread of Aids in the country – until the government finally gave in and banned the business of selling blood. At least officially.
Everything could have ended well back then. Gao Yaojie was praised, Vice Premier Wu Yi thanked her personally. As late as 2003, the state television station CCTV praised Gao as a person who was changing China. She was praised for her “profound knowledge and rational thinking, which dispelled people’s prejudices and fears, as well as her motherly love and selfless enthusiasm, which warmed the helplessness of the weak.” Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Gao was “one of the bravest people I know.”
But the catastrophe continued. In the provinces, in particular, countless farmers became infected with the HI virus. And while Beijing officially spoke of fewer than 800,000 people affected, Gao was convinced that more than ten million people had already been infected. The efforts of Chinese cadres to play the extent of the problem down led to anger and indignation – both at home and abroad.
And the official view of Gao’s commitment also changed: initial skepticism and interim praise increasingly turned into rejection. Above all, Gao’s fame abroad disturbed the authorities. Initially, local officials in Henan in particular tried to silence Gao. In vain. When she wanted to travel abroad for an award in 2007, Beijing had also had enough: the authorities placed her under house arrest without further ado.
But Gao Yaojie refused to give in. On the contrary. “This was a man-made disaster. But those responsible were never held accountable, nor did they utter a single word of apology.” As a result, the pressure on Gao increased and she finally went into exile in New York in 2009. She died there on Sunday. Gao Yaojie was 95 years old.
Gao was certainly not the first to diagnose HIV and AIDS in China. But without her tenacity and her tireless fight against the disease and the authorities, even more people would probably have fallen victim to this catastrophe. Michael Radunski
Snowfall in Beijing: After winter had already arrived in the north-east of the country for some time, the pre-Christmas period in Beijing is now also accompanied by heavy snowfall. Also in China, it is usually the children who enjoy the white splendor the most.
Alongside Brazil, Argentina is the most important player in South America. A fact the USA and China are aware of. Accordingly, the two world powers are courting the country intensively. For a long time, it seemed as if Beijing’s advances would be successful – China’s huge sales market and the substantial investments in infrastructure were already convincing arguments in other countries.
But now Argentina has a new president. Marcel Grzanna took a closer look at the election winner Javier Milei and his view of the superpowers USA and China. Unexpectedly, the USA and Europe have been presented with a huge opportunity. Because instead of making his country’s economic recovery dependent on China, Milei is counting on the support of the USA and Europe.
Meanwhile, Beijing is far more present in Hong Kong for the indefinite future. There, district elections were held at the weekend – the first since the wave of democratic protests four years ago. But what Jörn Petring reports on the ballot is sobering.
The vast majority of Hong Kongers have simply ignored the district elections. Many see the elections as nothing more than a sham. The city administration and central government in Beijing, on the other hand, are reacting almost euphorically.
We hope you have many new insights while reading
A tug-of-war for the favor of the gauchos: Javier Milei was only sworn in as President of Argentina on Sunday but he has long been caught in the middle of the geopolitical tussle between China and the United States.
The two largest economies have identified the South American country as an important player that needs to be won over. A US delegation thus made its way to Buenos Aires at the weekend to counter a charm offensive by China’s head of state Xi Jinping. Xi had previously addressed Milei in a handwritten letter.
Washington and Beijing are concerned about two things: raw materials such as lithium are available in large quantities in Argentina and awaken the desires of both tech nations. On the other hand, Argentina plays a significant role as a political power in South America, whose direction is important for its neighboring countries and thus for the entire continent.
Milei’s announcement that an Argentina under his government would not become a member of the BRICS Plus community of states, which Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are due to join on January 1, carried correspondingly great symbolic weight.
The decision did not come as a surprise. The new head of state had formulated his aversion to cooperation with China and other dictatorships too frequently and too decisively – including unmistakably in the direction of the US.
“Not only will I not do business with China, I will not do business with any communist. I am an advocate of freedom, peace and democracy. Communists don’t fit in, the Chinese don’t fit in, Putin doesn’t fit in,” Lilei said in an interview with the arch-conservative US journalist Tucker Carlson. He has been repeating ever since that his allies are the USA, Israel and the West.
Xi Jinping still tried to turn the tide with a handwritten letter. The tone: friendly, approachable, almost “pacifist,” as the South America expert Christopher Ecclestone from the London-based strategy firm Hallgarten & Company told the Voice of America. The general tone of the letter was “very formal, very welcoming, very nonthreatening,” with a “very capitalist” element.
The tone was in contrast to previous threats from Beijing, which had warned Milei not to turn away. But now the Chinese government is resorting to the usual pragmatism it always uses when it senses that threatening gestures are not working.
“China remains Argentina’s reliable partner,” promised the China Daily. The newspaper recalled the volume of trade between the two countries, which has grown from US$1.1 billion to US$21.3 billion since 2000. It also recalled important Chinese investments in Argentina’s infrastructure.
Milei has no objections to Chinese investments as long as they are private. His extraordinarily polite response to Xi’s letter indicates that he is in no way interested in a diplomatic escalation. But Milei also makes no secret of the fact that it is the Americans whose values he shares and whose support he seeks.
The US delegation in Buenos Aires has already promised help to constructively flank the talks between Argentina and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Since its national bankruptcy at the turn of the millennium, Argentina has repeatedly drafted and rejected crisis plans with the IMF. Milei is also seeking proximity to the IMF, which is dominated by the Americans, and is therefore also committed to the US dollar.
This is precisely why Argentina’s rejection of BRICS is a painful blow for Beijing. China already invited the South Americans to join in 2022. And until the election, it looked as if Argentina would join the forum. With Argentina and BRICS founding member Brazil, Beijing would have gained the two largest countries in South America as common allies. However, Milei clarified that he not only disliked the communists but also considered Brazil’s head of state Lula to be an enemy of democracy.
For Beijing, it would have been a further step towards countering the dominance of the US dollar with its own national currency, the renminbi – a declared goal of China, which it is promoting within BRICS. China’s growing influence on the South American economic organization Mercosur, which has been negotiating a possible free trade agreement with the EU for many years, is also being curbed.
Now that the battle lines have been drawn, Milei has to deliver. The idea of protecting himself from being taken over by China meets with the approval of the majority of his compatriots. Entrepreneur Santiago Farfan from Berlin, for example, supports the new man’s course of wanting to strengthen democratic values. Farfan’s family owns farmland in the Argentinian province of Jujuy.
The 42-year-old hopes that Milei will get to the root of the country’s greatest evil. “He must fight corruption. If he succeeds, the entire Argentine economy will benefit, and that would in turn make it easier for him to enforce distancing from China,” says Farfan in an interview with Table.Media.
Many Hong Kongers have expressed their resentment of the political situation in their city by not going to the ballot box. Only 27.5 percent of the more than four million eligible voters cast their ballots in the district elections on Sunday. Accordingly, voter turnout fell to a record low. The previous worst result was in 1988 when only 30.3 percent cast their vote. At that time it was still under British administration.’
The discrepancy with the previous district election four years ago is particularly large. Amid a wave of protests for more democracy, the pro-government camp suffered a crushing defeat in 2019. With a record voter turnout of more than 71 percent, it lost control of 17 of the 18 district councils.
Beijing ended the protests by introducing a strict law to protect national security. In addition, a comprehensive electoral reform was carried out. As a result, only candidates loyal to Beijing were allowed to stand in the district elections at the weekend. In addition, the number of democratically elected seats was drastically reduced. Only 20 percent of district councilors could still be directly elected by the people.
Many Hong Kongers wanted nothing to do with this “sham election,” as government critics called it. The polling stations remained empty, but shopping centers and cafés were well-frequented on Sunday. The European External Action Service (EEAS) called on those responsible in Hong Kong to restore the people’s confidence in the democratic processes laid down in the Basic Law.
For Beijing and the Hong Kong government, the election result is a defeat in more ways than one. The authorities had heavily promoted the election in the run-up to the vote. Posters were distributed throughout the city calling on people to take part in the election. They also warned that calls for boycotts would be severely punished.
Numerous companies were also on board. Chinese companies based in Hong Kong in particular urged their employees to go to the polls. Supervisors launched corresponding calls in WhatsApp and WeChat groups. Several Chinese banks even enlisted their employees to canvass for the pro-government candidates on the streets on Sunday.
Buses were organized from the neighboring Chinese city of Shenzhen to take voters living there directly to the polling stations in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific promoted the election with discounted tickets. There was also an embarrassing glitch: at the end of the election day, the computers at the polling stations went on strike, which is why the elections were extended by 90 minutes.
The official statements on the election from Beijing and Hong Kong naturally read very differently on Monday. The National Security Bureau spoke of a “fair and open” election, as reported by the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the election was of “high quality.” The new electoral system had proved to be “clearly superior.”
The Hong Kong and Macau office of the State Council, which is based in Beijing, also expressed its satisfaction. The election had been freed from “political gimmicks.” The new district councilors could now “concentrate on solving real problems in the community.”
The German government should place greater emphasis on the interests of the German economy in its dealings with China. This is what 52 percent of decision-makers in Germany expect from the traffic light coalition. 35 percent tend to be against it, 13 percent remain undecided.
This is the result of an exclusive survey conducted by digital media company Table.Media, in which over 3,000 high-ranking stakeholders have taken part since the beginning of September. They are registered in the Transparency Register of the German Bundestag and the majority comes from companies, associations and non-governmental organizations or science and administration. They are spread across sectors such as the automotive or energy sector, the construction or digital economy, as well as trade unions and environmental associations.
In the eyes of the decision-makers, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock shines with a particularly high level of professionalism. In mid-September – i.e. after the survey began – the Green politician described China’s President Xi Jinping as a “dictator.” On US broadcaster Fox News, she said at the time that if Russian President Vladimir Putin won the war in Ukraine, what kind of “signal would that be for other dictators in the world, such as Xi, China’s president”?
However, this apparently did not affect the assessment of her professionalism by decision-makers in Germany: with 445 mentions, she leads the ranking of the most professional minister, followed by Economics and Energy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) with 384 mentions.
Both also clearly exceeded expectations. For Baerbock, almost 49 percent responded to the question with “yes” or “rather yes,” compared to 42 percent for Habeck. This puts them in second and fourth place in the cabinet comparison.
In addition, almost 82 percent of decision-makers in Germany consider special efforts by the German government in climate and energy policy to be of rather high or even high importance. Around 85 percent also assume there will actually be a focus on energy policy in the next two years.
The respondents’ assessment thus takes into account that China now dominates the global market for renewable energy products and the corresponding supply chains: 80 percent of the products used to manufacture solar systems originate from there. Meanwhile, Germany wants to focus even more on renewable energies, partly due to its move away from Russia as a gas supplier. löh
When her real career begins, Gao Yaojie has already been retired for six years. It is April 7, 1996, when the trained gynecologist is asked for advice at Henan Hospital. While other doctors at the hospital are unable to come to a conclusive diagnosis, Gao discovers by chance that the patient has AIDS.
But this cannot be true. At that time, people in China believed that AIDS could only be transmitted through sexual intercourse or during pregnancy. Nothing applies to the patient, who casually mentions a blood donation. This is where Gao comes in.
In the years that followed, Gao Yaojie uncovered how local cadres and companies contributed to the spread of HIV throughout the country through their blood trade. She became a pioneer in the fight against AIDS, traveling repeatedly through the provinces to advise and treat stigmatized patients. When Gao finally became famous abroad, the Communist Party wanted to silence her. Gao died in exile on Sunday.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the sale of blood was a lucrative business, especially in rural areas such as Henan. So-called blood stations were set up in almost every village, where poor farmers in particular turned their blood into money. The business was promoted by local governments; HIV and AIDS were completely unknown.
Hygienic conditions at the “blood stations” were appalling: doctors extracted valuable plasma from the farmers’ blood. The remaining blood was collected in barrels and infused back into the villagers.
It was the starting point for Gao’s research. In Henan alone, she visited more than 100 villages and met thousands of affected families. “It’s bigger. It’s nationwide, everywhere. I saw it all with my own eyes,” Gao said later. The term “Aids villages” was born.
The authorities, on the other hand, tried to cover up the disaster. They ignored, trivialized and concealed it. Gao was also targeted. But she did not let the pressure and intimidation stop her. She had already experienced far worse, Gao said succinctly. And indeed, Gao had led a hard and deprived life until then.
Gao Yaojie (高耀潔) was born in 1927 in the eastern province of Shandong. As a child, she experienced the Japanese invasion, then, the Chinese Civil War, which brought the Communists around Mao Zedong to power. This was followed in the 1950s by the devastating famine caused by Mao’s “Great Leap.”
During the Cultural Revolution, Gao was persecuted by Mao’s henchmen because of her family background. Since that time, Gao has been limping, partly because she had to kneel on cold stone for hours on end. But both during the Cultural Revolution and later in the AIDS scandal, Gao remained steadfast.
She kept talking about the spread of Aids in the country – until the government finally gave in and banned the business of selling blood. At least officially.
Everything could have ended well back then. Gao Yaojie was praised, Vice Premier Wu Yi thanked her personally. As late as 2003, the state television station CCTV praised Gao as a person who was changing China. She was praised for her “profound knowledge and rational thinking, which dispelled people’s prejudices and fears, as well as her motherly love and selfless enthusiasm, which warmed the helplessness of the weak.” Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Gao was “one of the bravest people I know.”
But the catastrophe continued. In the provinces, in particular, countless farmers became infected with the HI virus. And while Beijing officially spoke of fewer than 800,000 people affected, Gao was convinced that more than ten million people had already been infected. The efforts of Chinese cadres to play the extent of the problem down led to anger and indignation – both at home and abroad.
And the official view of Gao’s commitment also changed: initial skepticism and interim praise increasingly turned into rejection. Above all, Gao’s fame abroad disturbed the authorities. Initially, local officials in Henan in particular tried to silence Gao. In vain. When she wanted to travel abroad for an award in 2007, Beijing had also had enough: the authorities placed her under house arrest without further ado.
But Gao Yaojie refused to give in. On the contrary. “This was a man-made disaster. But those responsible were never held accountable, nor did they utter a single word of apology.” As a result, the pressure on Gao increased and she finally went into exile in New York in 2009. She died there on Sunday. Gao Yaojie was 95 years old.
Gao was certainly not the first to diagnose HIV and AIDS in China. But without her tenacity and her tireless fight against the disease and the authorities, even more people would probably have fallen victim to this catastrophe. Michael Radunski
Snowfall in Beijing: After winter had already arrived in the north-east of the country for some time, the pre-Christmas period in Beijing is now also accompanied by heavy snowfall. Also in China, it is usually the children who enjoy the white splendor the most.
