China’s Central Government Should Condemn Raids by Local Police on Rural AIDS Villagers, New York Times Editorial Says

China's AIDS epidemic, which is expected to reach 20 million HIV-positive people by the end of the decade, has been "driven in large part by totalitarian habits," a New York Times editorial says. Although China's stance on AIDS is "slowly" changing, the change is "apparently only at the level of the central government," as a recent police raid and attack on AIDS villagers in a rural area "shows how far China has to go," the editorial says (New York Times, 7/11). Hundreds of police officers on June 22 raided the Chinese village of Xiongqiao in the rural province of Henan, moving through homes, physically abusing residents and arresting 13 people in what villagers said was a response to recent protests calling for better access to medical care, including HIV/AIDS treatment (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/8). "The central government should condemn these abuses and arrest those involved," the Times says. If the government can stop the abuses by local police, "it will show that its constructive talk is real," the editorial says, concluding, "China cannot save itself from AIDS until officials understand that the enemy of the people is the disease, not its sufferers" (New York Times, 7/11).