Hiring sufferers of HIV/AIDS to intimidate debtors or people whose homes developers want to level is relatively common in China,says the founder of a non-governmental organization that helps victims of the disease.His comments came after a recent episode in late December in the city of Nanyang, Henan Province,where police arrested five people over a plot by a developer to form a team of HIV/AIDS sufferersto threaten with infection some residents who refused to make way for a building project.Domestic media has taken to calling the group the "AIDS demolition team."The supposed HIV/AIDS sufferers told residents they would be infected if they did not move, media reports said,but it is unclear how they would have carried out the threat or if they even had HIV.In addition to the arrests, the city government has also punished 25 officials,including the deputy head of a district housing bureau, for a lack of oversight of the development project and taking bribes.Cheng Shuaishuai, who founded an organization that provides free housing to sufferers of HIV/AIDS,said the kind of intimidation seen in Nanyang happens a lot, especially in rural areas of Henan where people do not understand the disease.The phenomenon is partly the result of the discrimination HIV/AIDS patients face in China and the lack of legal protection afforded them, Cheng said.Many people with the disease quit their jobs because they face prejudice, then have to live in poor conditions, he said.
