There is one type of tragedy in China that I have been hearing about constantly since I came here, but it has never come closer than now. I was chatting with a friend the other night and she told me that she had received bad news from two friends. The first was that the brother of a friend had been killed in a traffic accident. You have heard my opinions on Chinese driving, particularly in Wuhan so I won’t go further this time. The second was a tragedy that has been all too common in China and is as strong an indication as any of the ignorant, self-serving, and callously neglectful attitude to business that is so often found in this spiritually disoriented nation.
When in High School one of my friend’s schoolmates had an accident serious enough to require a blood transfusion. This girl grew up to be clever and attractive, completed a university degree, and left her home town to gain a good job in Beijing, where she met a handsome young man and fell in love. Their love grew, then they decided to marry. They chose to obey the government regulation that young couples must have a medical examination before marriage. That is when tragedy revealed its presence. The young woman is HIV positive.
I can only speculate on other aspects of this tragedy. The fiancee might also have HIV as they have been living together for some time. If he hasn’t it is likely that his family will make them separate, such is the outcome oriented and materialistic attitude to marriage among Chinese, and the power of parents over ‘children’. There are many Chinese who rise above this culture so let me not assume but hope that this young man has sufficient love to care for his beloved through the terrible future as HIV turns into AIDS and she gradually descends to death. Or will the course of her progression be slower than his, if he has it?
How could she have been given infected blood? Ten years ago, when she was given the transfusion, AIDS was well known, and infection prevention strategies were no longer news in the medical world. But teams of blood buyers were touring districts in China buying blood from anyone they could persuade, collecting it with unsterilized equipment. These people were interested in gaining quantity at the cheapest price possible and didn’t give a damn about the welfare of the donors. They would then take the ‘product’ to hospitals and sell it and the hospitals would buy it with scant regard to the integrity of the supply process.
I cried as the enormity of what my friend was telling me hit home. A young woman and young man’s lives ruined. One, and perhaps two people preparing for happiness given instead sentences to early death. The killer an institution that was founded to save lives. When will such crimes cease in this terrible world of ours?