AIDS Funds Frozen for China in Grant Dispute
A Chinese man dying of AIDS was comforted by his wife. A global fund has frozen payments to China to fight H.I.V.
By SHARON LaFRANIERE
Published: May 20, 2011
BEIJING — The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has frozen payments on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of disease-fighting grants to China, one of the charity’s biggest recipients, in a dispute over China’s management of the grants and its hostility toward involving grass-roots organizations in public health issues.
Related
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China Reports AIDS Mortality Is Cut by Two-Thirds (May 19, 2011)
The dispute may add to a growing debate among global health experts whether China, which spent an estimated $46 billion staging the 2008 Olympic games and last year’s Shanghai Expo and financed a $586 billion economic stimulus package, should be a recipient of such aid at all.
The fund, which has expanded to 150 countries since it was founded in 2002 as a pool for public and private donations to fight the world’s worst diseases, quietly decided to hold back payments from a major AIDS grant to China in November. It froze payments from other grants to China several weeks ago because of fresh concerns over lack of monitoring of funds.
Its decisions appear rooted in a collision between the fund’s conviction that grass-roots organizations must be intrinsically involved in the fight to control diseases like AIDS, and the Chinese government’s growing suspicion of any civil-society groups that are not directly under its control. They follow complaints by some AIDS activists that Chinese officials have sought to suppress their public-health activities, have shunted grant money to groups under government control and have failed to account for how some funds were spent.
At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars for programs to reduce the incidence of tuberculosis, prevent and treat H.I.V. infections and wipe out malaria. China has received $539 million from the Global Fund since 2003, according to the fund’s Web site. An additional $295 million is in the pipeline, making China the fund’s fourth largest recipient behind Ethiopia, India and Tanzania, one global health expert said.
A decision by the Global Fund to pull out of China would be hugely embarrassing for the Chinese government because it would suggest that China was unable to meet the standards of an international organization that dispersed funds to far less sophisticated governments. The fund can terminate grants that have been mismanaged or short of that, formally suspend them. Suspension is a harsher step than halting payments and sets up a series of major obstacles to the release of additional funds.
Those more punitive measures seemed to have been averted Friday after two days of tense meetings between officials from the fund and the government. Jon Liden , a spokesman for the Global Fund, said China agreed Friday to a number of stipulations on how money would be used and monitored. “We came to a point where we needed to make clear signals to China,” he said. “We seem to share an understanding of the way forward.” This week, sources familiar with the negotiations said China pledged to the Global Fund that it would repay any funds that were misspent. But some fear that the inclusion of civil society groups in the health effort may still be an issue.
The meetings took place against the backdrop of growing questions over whether China should be allowed to benefit from the fund’s largesse. As a middle-income country, China qualifies for grants, as do Thailand, India, the Philippines and a number of Latin American countries. Unlike poorer countries, those nations are expected to contribute a certain percentage of the cost of the programs financed.
But China’s huge success in winning awards — coupled with growing evidence of the government’s deep pockets — has inspired fiery criticism, including from Jack Chow, a former first assistant director general of the World Health Organization who helped create the Global Fund. Dr. Chow, now a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has argued that China’s Health Ministry seeks aid only because the Chinese government chooses instead to lavish funds on “hard power” agencies or to invest it in other sectors.
“China’s persistent appetite threatens to undermine the entire premise behind the Global Fund,” he wrote in the July issue of Foreign Policy. At a time when the fund is struggling for contributions, he wrote, “Donors will grow even more reluctant if they realize that substantial funds are being awarded to a country that can more than pay for its own health programs.”
China’s contributions to the fund amount to a mere $16 million, compared with $5.5 billion from the United States, the leading donor, he wrote. Fund officials have been reviewing the question of eligibility criteria, and lower-than-expected donations are now forcing them to be more selective about recipients.
AIDS Funds Frozen for China in Grant Dispute
Published: May 20, 2011
(Page 2 of 2)
Some fund officials suggest that China is not expected to apply for major new grants. Nonetheless, fund officials insist the controversy over eligibility criteria had no bearing on the fund’s decision to hold up payments.
Related
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China Reports AIDS Mortality Is Cut by Two-Thirds (May 19, 2011)
The problems between the fund and China turned serious late last year after audits revealed that China had failed give 35 percent of a $283 million AIDS grant to community-based organizations, as it had pledged. The grant focused on community-based H.I.V. treatment and prevention, especially focusing on drug users and prostitutes.
According to a report by a nongovernment group called Global Fund Watch, China actually allocated less than 11 percent to nongovernment groups. An external audit found that community groups appeared to be left out of strategy sessions.
Chinese officials countered that many civil society groups could not be trusted to properly spend the Global Fund’s money and that government agencies were more trustworthy, sources said. But in interviews this week, activists challenged that view.
One, Chang Kun, alleged that government officials or “official NGOs” created by the government routinely pocketed more than half the grant funds. He said that an AIDS rights group that he headed in western China’s Xinjiang region had received a grant of roughly $3,000 in 2005, only to be forced to return it because the government disbanded his group.
“They view our campaigning as troublemaking. They don’t like private NGOs and people taking up organizing roles,” he said. “I have been campaigning for AIDS patients for seven years now, and I rarely see people getting any benefits from the Global Fund.”
The Hebei Province director of an AIDS support group, Shen Zhiqi, said that he supported the fund’s decision to withhold funds, because “I really don’t want to see something as well-intentioned as the Global Fund be sucked into the black hole of corruption.” But he said he did not endorse totally withdrawing financing because it would hurt grass-roots groups.
The Chinese government has been wary of such groups for years. One prominent official gave a taste of the government’s thinking earlier this week. In Qiushi, a Communist Party journal, Zhou Benshun, the secretary general of the party’s political and legislative affairs commission, wrote that China must “guard against being misled to the point of falling into the trap of so-called ‘civil society’ devised by certain Western countries.”
From: Kun Chang <changkun2010@gmail.com>
Date: 2011/5/13
Subject: 【权利:3808】 退出中国之日，我放鞭炮一万响！Fwd: [联席会议] 全球基金将退出中国
To: China AIDS Group <chinaaidsgroup@googlegroups.com>, aidswalkchina@googlegroups.com, keepngofresh@googlegroups.com
Cc: chinarights@googlegroups.com, China_HIV_AIDS_CBO_Network <china_hiv_aids_cbo_network@googlegroups.com>
发件人: xin jin <zlw621218@gmail.com>
日期: 2011年5月13日 下午07时12分22秒格林尼治标准时间+0800主题: [联席会议] 全球基金将退出中国
据刚刚得到的消息：从今年起全球基金将退出中国。
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是掘墓还是造墓（60）古有“冲冠一怒为红颜”，今有奋笔三怒为哪般？
常坤
2010年6月12日
我回国已经快四个月了，这四个月，我通过各种机会，走访了北京、安徽、湖南、湖北、江苏、河南、浙江等省份，同时也与包括来自广东、江西、河北、辽宁、陕西等地的朋友面谈，有更多的通过电话和网络进行交流。这期间，我的Gmail邮箱被偷了，MSN被盗了，电脑也莫名其妙的坏了。
2004年以来：
有的人死了，光荣而伟大，有死在病床上，有死在抗争路上；
有的人消失了，消失的无影无踪，是被迫的，还是自愿的，我们都不知道；
有的人进了监狱，有的进去的轰轰烈烈，有的进去的凄凄惨惨，有的进去的默默无闻；
有的人离开了中国，有一去不复返的，有重整马鞍回来的，有的还在观望；
有的人放弃了艾滋病工作，有的走的高高兴兴，有的心灰意冷，还有的心不甘；
有的人沉默了，但他们还在艾滋病圈里；
有的人妥协了，但他们还在艾滋病圈里；
还有的人背叛了，但他们还在艾滋病圈里；
但是，还有很多的人，依然在战斗，斗争在方方面面，不屈不挠！
听到太多得话，谈了太多的事，知了太多的人情世故，我困惑了，我矛盾了，我找不到北了，我摆正不了我得处境了。也还是在这个四个月中，很多独立的机构陷入捐赠款结汇问题；想着四个月前万延海老师和江天勇律师兴高采烈的到机场接我，而今天万老师却和他的家人远涉美国。
我很怀念在四五年前的光景，我该把这种破坏的责任归咎于谁？
我有很多得疑问，当丧失了信仰和立场的情况下，
我想质询那些庞然大物，船大难掉头，这兼职就是放狗死屁的借口，当侩子手的不仅仅是手里拿把刀狠狠的砍下去的那个人；
我不忍心下笔，我在享受回忆过去岁月的一种畅快淋漓之中，感受到自己勇敢——无知者无畏，也感受到自己的渺小——无能者无行；这一切只有在抉择和矛盾中才能显现。我很能够理解这种精神的快慰是不可多得的。物极必反否极泰来，痛苦折磨思索后的极端就是大彻大悟，似醍醐灌顶，飘然欲仙。
但我却又不能不写，时而奋笔疾书，时而惶惶然不知所措，为啥呢？——那是因为我也害怕了。遥想当年，一种狂热的热爱国家和民族的热情，一种舍我其谁的个人英雄主义气概，背着包就去河南跑山东，听说哪里死的人多，哪里怪病（艾滋病）多就往哪里去。而如今，我们还剩下谁呢？昨天我是失眠了的，只因为和黄如方坚春杰他们回忆了我们战斗的历史，掰着指头算了算，就剩下我和武嵘嵘还依然在艾滋病这个领域浴血奋斗，这就是我们那批人剩下的。当然，因为我们而后来居上者，目前坚持着的还是有的，处境却不容乐观，未来几个月，是有很多人要么抛弃理想，要么抛弃价值观，迫于生计而溶入洪水滔天之中了。
这将是一种什么样子的悲壮呢？这是我第二次如此的感慨，还记的第一次是因为我们在新疆建设得学生抗击艾滋病网络被彻底击破的时候，我们的学生艾滋病健康主题社团被取缔，学生艾滋病积极分子被恐吓被威胁，甚至很多普通的志愿者都要发誓言表决心！我坚信，那不是摧残，那时在锻炼钢铁。
五百多年前，一代“先儒”王守仁，因反对宦官专权， 被廷杖四十，谪贬至贵州龙场当驿丞。在经历了万般无果的“格物”之后，面对龙场荒山野岭，有了心学感悟，而后发展为精湛四字“知行合一”。而单纯的人有理想的人则将超越，什么样的壮士能够坦然的冲锋面对死亡、义无返顾跳下悬崖？什么样的学士能够不惧饥寒交迫、冷嘲热讽？
没有，我们都没有。所以我们在承受了能够承受的极限后，都在选择自己能够走的路。这也是“知行合一”。按照自己的路，度过人生，不管这个过程中有什么，我认为这是最成功的人生！
我至少还是单纯的，自2004年参与艾滋病运动以来，自2006年立志为艾滋病防治努力一生以来。每每当我无能，又无力采取途径去践行思考的时候，就自然而然得又陷入一个更深的思考之后。
古有“冲冠一怒为红颜”，今有奋笔三怒为哪般？一怒三回忆，二怒三疑问，三怒三质询！是为序。
★★《权利》电子邮件网络非常鼓励具有行动力的文章供大家分享和引起支持！
1，所有帖子没有注明"不可转载"的，一律可以转载；转发本邮件成员文章，请注明：转自《权利》https://groups.google.com/group/ChinaRights
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General Coordinator of China Youth HIV/AIDS Assembly
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★★《权利》电子邮件网络非常鼓励具有行动力的文章供大家分享和引起支持！
1，所有帖子没有注明"不可转载"的，一律可以转载；转发本邮件成员文章，请注明：转自《权利》https://groups.google.com/group/ChinaRights
2，《权利》公共发言，请发电子邮件到 ChinaRights@googlegroups.com
3，要退订此论坛，请发邮件至 ChinaRights-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
4，群发邮件，慎重发言，文明用语，切忌只言片语不明不确！
5，备份查询：http://chinarights2.blogspot.com
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