Since taking office in March, China's President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have cultivated an image of baby-cuddling folksiness. Hu's and Wen's breaking of bread with peasants during official outingsnot to mention eventually coming clean on SARSare seen by some as evidence of the emergence of a new breed of Chinese leader.
But to the residents of AIDS-stricken Wenlou village in central Henan province, China's authorities seem considerably less paternal. As many as 60% of the locals are HIV positive, infected when they sold blood under unsanitary conditions in the 1990s. Most are too poor to...
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