[PROFILE] Xiao Bao: Empowering LGBT in China

Posted on by

Zhao Zheng, known to his friends and coworkers as Xiao Bao, has been working in HIV and STI prevention since 2004. In 2008 he was conferred the title of Youth Ambassador for HIV Prevention by the Tianjin HIV and STI Prevention Coordinating Committee. At 26, he is the youngest of the activists Asia Catalyst is supporting to go to the International AIDS Conference this July. 

Currently the program officer and coordinator for Tianjin Deep Blue Working Group (天津深蓝工作组), Xiao Bao is responsible for, among other things, program management, training, planning, research and evaluation. In 2008, Xiao Bao was appointed a Community Liaison to the China Men Who Have Sex With Men (MSM) Health Forum. In collaboration with the Institute of Sexuality and Sociology at Renmin University, he completed research to assess the size of the MSM population in Tianjin, and initiated the MSM Population Ethnic Research Survey in 2010. 
In the run-up to this year’s International AIDS Conference, AIDS 2012, Xiao Bao spoke to Asia Catalyst about his own work.

(more…)

[COMMENTARY] On the Measures on the Administration of Internet Information Services／关于《互联网信息服务管理办法（修订草案征求意见稿）》的意见

Posted on by

To:The National Internet Information Office,Ministry
of Industry and Information Technology 
国家互联网信息办公室、工业和信息化部：

In response to the Notice of Soliciting Public Comment on the Measures on the Administration of Internet Information Services (Draft for Public Comment)
issued by the two departments on June 7, 2012, I set out below my comment.

根据二〇一二年六月七日两部门发布的”关于《互联网信息服务管理办法（修订草案征求意见稿）》公开征求意见的通知”（以下简称”征求意见的通知”），兹提出如下意见。

Section 1 of Article 15 of the Measures on the Administration of Internet Information Services (Draft for Public Comment) (hereinafter referred to as “the Draft”) stipulates that any Internet information service provider which provides services of Internet users disseminating information to the public should require any of the Internet users to register real identity information. 

随同征求意见的通知公布的《互联网信息服务管理办法（修订草案征求意见稿）》（以下简称”征求意见稿”）第十五条第一款规定，”提供由互联网用户向公众发布信息服务的互联网信息服务提供者，应当要求用户用真实身份信息注册。”

对此，我基于如下所述理由提出删除该款规定的意见。

(more…)

[PROFILE] Lanlan: Leading the Fight for Acceptance of Sex Workers in China

Posted on by
lanlan.jpg

Lanlan, a founding member and now executive director of Tianjin Xin’ai （天津信爱）was born in 1978, a time of great economic change for China. After dropping out of school at thirteen, Lanlan tried her hand at farming and eventually found work in a restaurant, chopping vegetables and washing dishes. In 2000, after the birth of her daughter, Lanlan turned to sex work to support her child and aging parents. She was motivated to start a sex worker support group when she began to feel, as she says, that “AIDS NGO staff could not relate to sex workers or their particular needs.” Today, Tianjin Xin’ai conducts outreach to sex workers, providing them with occupational safety training, health training, and legal training. The mission, says Lanlan, is self-confidence, self-respect, and mutual support.

Because of restrictive U.S. visa policies, Lanlan may be one of the few sex workers in
attendance at the AIDS 2012 conference this year. Lanlan spoke to Asia Catalyst about her own work and why she looking forward to Washington, DC.

(more…)

[NEWS] Room for Debate at China’s LGBT Community Leader Conference

Posted on by
Aibai Transgender Program Manager Wu Jisuan.JPG
Aibai Transgender Program Manager Wu Jisuan. Photo by Queer Comrades

The first China Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual &Transgender (LGBT) Community Leader Conference took place last weekend and the “intense debates about the development of ideas, tactics and future directions for the LGBT movement in China” are hopefully just the beginning. Hosted by the Beijing Gender Health Education Institute, the conference boasted almost 100 regionally diverse activists representing 53 organizations and a wide range of viewpoints.  To see a longer write up and many great pictures check out the Queer Comrades blog here.

[UPDATE] UN Endorses Asia Catalyst Report on Compensation

Posted on by

In the good news category, UNAIDS has recently come out strongly in favor of China’s Blood Disaster: The Way Forward, a joint report published by Asia Catalyst and the Korekata Law Center this year. The statement, available here boldly calls for ‘comprehensive and inclusive process of consultation and dialogue involving representatives from government, civil society, people infected through contaminated transfusions, legal experts, academia and other relevant fields.’