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Wan Yanhai (; born 20 November 1963) is a Chinese
AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
activist. Dr. Wan started his career at China's Ministry of Health (MOH), where among other things he translated the first announcement of the AIDS epidemic into Chinese. He set up the first HIV/AIDS telephone hotline in China where people could obtain comprehensive information on HIV/AIDS. After this, he focused much of his AIDS work on advocating for health care and human rights of people with AIDS living in Henan Province, where there was a coverup of blood selling businesses connected to local officials infected tens of thousands (as many as a million) men, women, and children with the AIDS virus. He expanded his work to advocate for the health of injection drug users, sex workers, and other marginalized groups disproportionately affected by the AIDS epidemic. He was co-founder of the
Beijing LGBT Center The Beijing LGBT Center (; also known as 北同文化) was a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the living environment for LGBT people in China. The group was founded in 2008, and until its closure in 2023, provided resources such as ...
, the first gay community center in China. His "frank and aggressive" approach toward AIDS has led to frequent run-ins with authorities and landed him in detention three times in the past 12 years, including a month-long detention in 2002 that made international headlines and sparked a successful international campaign for his release. Dr. Wan has won numerous human rights awards, is a former Fulbright Fellow and Yale University Global Fellow, and signed China's groundbreaking Charter 08 on human rights, of which Nobel Laureate and Wan's friend Liu Xiaobo is the first signatory. Dr. Wan is currently the director of the country's foremost AIDS-awareness group, the Beijing-based Aizhixing Institute of Health Education. (The Chinese characters for "Aizhixing" (愛知行) represent love, knowledge and action and are a play on the Chinese word for AIDS.) On 24 August 2002 he disappeared and was later found to be detained by police after attending a film screening at a
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
gay and lesbian film festival and charged with the leaking of an internal government report into the Bloodhead scandal in
Henan Province Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
. He was released a month later on 20 September. From 6 to 9 November 2006, he attended an international meeting in Indonesia for
The Yogyakarta Principles The Yogyakarta Principles is a document about human rights in the areas of sexual orientation and gender identity that was published as the outcome of an international meeting of human rights groups in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in November 2006. Th ...
as one of 29 experts. After the meeting he has gotten his most recent detention on November 24, 2006 - this time a three-day detention prompted by his efforts to organize a public forum on HIV/AIDS to coincide with
World AIDS Day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired immun ...
. After his release on November 27, 2006, Wan accused Chinese leaders of falling "asleep" as the virus spreads. He was also forced by the government to cancel his "Blood Safety, AIDS and Legal Human Rights Workshop" (due to have taken place between 25 and 30 November 2006). As the
Charter 08 Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by 303 Chinese dissident intellectuals and human rights activists. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting its name and style from ...
by
Liu Xiaobo Liu Xiaobo (; 28 December 1955 – 13 July 2017) was a Chinese writer, literary critic, human rights activist, philosopher and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who called for political reforms and was involved in campaigns to end communist one-par ...
was published on 10 December 2008, he agreed it and became one of the signatories. In July 2009, he also participated the 2009 World Outgames for
LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 33 ...
. On May 10, 2010, Wan Yanhai together with his family fled to the United States of America because of what he considered to be government persecution. In March, tax authorities opened an investigation into the Aizhixing Institute of Health Education. However, in 2011 tax authorities admitted that they had made an error and returned some 8,000 RMB to Aizhixing Institute.


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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wan, Yanhai HIV/AIDS activists Living people Chinese activists Charter 08 signatories 1963 births