Gao Yaojie, a Chinese doctor who opposed government pressure to reveal an AIDS epidemic that spread through rural China by collecting blood without thinking, passed away on Sunday at her home in Upper Manhattan. At the time, she was 95.
Prof. Andrew J. Nathan, a Chinese politics expert at Columbia University and the individual overseeing her affairs in the United States affirmed her demise.
Gao Yaojie garnered international recognition and renown in the late 1990s for her unwavering endeavors to expose and halt the AIDS epidemic among impoverished farmers; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among others, lauded her during the Obama administration. However, Communist Party officials ultimately attempted to stifle Dr. Gao, and she resided in New York for the remainder of her life.
Despite being in exile and experiencing deteriorating health, she persistently advocated for the hundreds of villages, particularly in her native province of Henan in central China, where inhabitants flocked to donate blood at collection stations whose shoddy procedures were responsible for tens of thousands if not more, AIDS-related fatalities.
For years, officials obstructed, disregarded, or downplayed the outbreak, and infected villagers received little assistance until the government was compelled to disseminate medicine in response to the outrage sparked by Dr. Gao and several other Chinese doctors and experts.
“AIDS destroyed countless families in addition to killing individuals,” Dr. Gao stated in a 2016 interview with The New York Times. The man-made catastrophe was the cause of this event. However, the individuals responsible for this have not been held accountable, nor have they expressed any remorse in writing.
Nearing her seventieth birthday, Dr. Gao retired from practicing medicine and embarked on a second career as an AIDS educator. However, her previous experiences fortified her for the adversities that lay ahead.
Gao Yaojie was born in the eastern Shandong Province on December 19, 1927. She was a child during the Japanese occupation of China and the Communist regime’s rise to power under Mao Zedong’s regime in the civil war. In addition to enduring the devastation that Mao’s policies induced in the late 1950s, she was also beaten and detained throughout his Cultural Revolution.
She remarked that she had endured much worse circumstances than the house arrest and duress from government and police officials she faced for alleging a cover-up of an AIDS epidemic.
“Her spirit was put to the test by the many ups and downs she experienced in life,” said Chung To, a former Hong Kong investment banker who established the Chi Heng Foundation to aid orphaned or AIDS-affected rural Chinese children. “Had it not been for her, the revelation of this epidemic could have remained laundered for an extended period, resulting in an increased loss of life.”
In 2012, Wang Shuping, a medical expert who was also instrumental in exposing the spread of AIDS in rural China, stated of Dr. Gao, “Capturing the media’s attention was her most significant contribution.” Local administrations desired to conceal numerous facts, but they were unable to do so due to Gao Yaojie’s courageous public statements. Dr. Wang passed away in 2019 after relocating to the United States.
Dr. Gao, a diminutive woman who exuded a hearty chuckle, not only exhibited the signs of advancing age but also walked with a disability. She was born into a comparatively affluent landowner and his spouse. During her childhood, her feet were bound with fabric for six years, adhering to a distressing traditional Chinese custom that aimed to artificially adorn her feet.
Her family established itself in the ancient Henan city of Kaifeng, and she quickly demonstrated her independence by enrolling in a nearby medical school. Following her 1953 graduation, she wed and subsequently specialized in women’s health.
Following 1958, Henan Province was one of the areas most severely affected by starvation. The province then descended into violent conflict in 1966 due to the Cultural Revolution. Dr. Gao was specifically targeted by Maoist extremists for severe physical abuse due to her “landlord” lineage and unwavering defiance. She claimed that after being compelled to kneel for hours on cold stone, her knees never fully recovered.
At one point, Gao Yaojie attempted suicide. At the age of 13, her youngest son was erroneously thrown into prison for three years on suspicion of offending Mao. Due to her son’s distress and a long-lasting estrangement from that period, she developed a strong aversion towards Mao’s legacy.
“China will have no hope unless Mao is dragged from his sacred pedestal,” she stated in 2015 during an interview.
In 1996, while on the road advocating for women’s health, Dr. Gao encountered her first patient who had been diagnosed with AIDS: a rural Chinese woman who had contracted the virus via a blood transfusion during an operation. Following this, the woman passed away in about two weeks.
Dr. Gao initiated her investigation into the spread of AIDS in Henan villages by personally visiting residents’ dwellings.
She and other medical personnel made the alarming discovery that hundreds of dubious blood stations, frequently supported by the government, were procuring blood from villagers through means that virtually ensured the transmission of infections.
The surplus plasma obtained from the farmers’ blood was pooled at the stations before being transfused back into villagers requiring the procedure. The combined blood vats were discovered to be an extremely lethal means of transmitting infectious diseases, such as the AIDS-causing H.I.V. virus.
By 1995, Henan authorities had made efforts to suppress the practice. Dr. Gao, however, advocated for the closure of blood stations, the treatment of infected villagers, and the prosecution of officials as the clandestine blood trade continued.
Frequently, she embarked on long journeys with a chauffeur departing from her residence in Zhengzhou, the administrative center of Henan province, to distribute food, clothing, and rudimentary remedies for fever, diarrhea, and other symptoms associated with AIDS to ailing villagers.
She recalled meeting a woman in one village who had committed suicide by hanging herself following the death of her spouse from AIDS. A toddler by the age of two was clinging to her heels.
“Gao Yaojie was crucial because she witnessed what was happening in the villages and continued to speak out about it,” said Zhang Jicheng, a former Henan journalist who was among the first to report on the AIDS epidemic in that province, during an interview. “Many individuals were perplexed as to why she did it, but she was fearless because she had already endured so much.”
The AIDS epidemic in rural China had escalated into a global controversy by the beginning of the twenty-first century, and Chinese officials’ attempts to downplay its gravity were met with domestic and international indignation. Chinese journalists and activists supported Dr. Gao, and she received considerable acclaim and an official reception in the country, even meeting Vice Premier Wu Yi.
However, the increasing prominence of Dr. Gao irritated other Chinese officials, who considered her a source of shame, particularly due to her insistence on continuing her campaign. Officials from Henan attempted to impede her from embarking on a journey to the United States in 2007 to receive an award, but the vice premier, Ms. Wu, prevailed.
2009 marked Dr. Gao’s relocation to the United States, where she began publishing books and delivering lectures on her experiences. Numerous AIDS specialists were irritated by her skepticism regarding the prevention of H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases through the promotion of condoms.
However, her immense reservoir of respect endowed even those who were critical of her stance on AIDS prevention with affectionate regard.
Her physician spouse, Guo Mingjiu, passed away in 2006. Two daughters, Jingxian Guo and Yanguang Guo, one son, Chufei Guo, one sister, Ming Feng Gao, three grandchildren, and three siblings and another sister reside in China in the estate of Dr. Gao.
A cohort of Chinese students resided in Dr. Gao’s West Harlem apartment during her final years, providing companionship and editing her writings. Although she never made it back to Henan, she requested that her cremated remains be transported there and dispersed along the Yellow River.
Also Read: Eniko Hart And Her Parents, Especially Her Mother, Are Very Close
