Chinese Police Break Up Press Conference
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
SHANGHAI, China – Police broke up a news conference yesterday by parents of hemophiliacs who say their children were infected with the AIDS virus due to a drug company’s negligence.
The families had come from various parts of China to try to negotiate compensation with a Shanghai pharmaceutical company they said produced a hemophilia drug using HIV-infected blood. The families allege the company sold the drug after the Ministry of Health banned it in 1995.
The company has rejected all demands for compensation and apologies, family members said.
“They are treating us like criminals when all we want is to take care of our children,” the mother of an infected child said. She asked to be identified only by her surname, Liu, because she did not want neighbors and co-workers to know her 15-year-old son has AIDS.
About 30 people, mainly family members and at least one infected person, took part in the news conference.
An activist, Wan Yanhai, said that after police broke up the gathering, the organizers were told not to leave and police surrounded the hotel in Shanghai where the news conference was taking place.
Reporters who attended the gathering were detained by plainclothes police but released after questioning.
Parents attending the conference said they believe 123 Chinese hemophiliacs became infected with HIV by using medications. China estimated it had 650,000 people living with HIV at the end of 2005, and 75,000 with AIDS.
