After a decade of inaction, the government of Jieyang, a city in
the northeastern part Guangdong Province, has finally tracked down
the gangs that have been organizing the homeless and unemployed
into a blood-selling racket.
The move came in response to a report in the Guangzhou-based
Information Times on Wednesday that exposed the gangs'
activities.
The paper reported that the gangs had organized hundreds of
"professional" blood donors in two urban villages in Jieyang, and
that some of the blood gangs had been in the trade for 20
years.
Under orders from the gang leaders, some donors have been
selling their blood in 400-milliliter quantities up to 15 or 16
times in a single month, the report said. Some villagers had been
engaged in the trade for 16 years.
The gangs then sold the ill-gotten blood in several cities in
Guangdong, including Chaozhou, Shanwei, Heyuan and Huizhou.
Prodded by the newspaper report, the local public security
bureau on Wednesday night dispatched 100 police officers to the two
villages mentioned in the article. The raid netted a gang leader
and five blood donors.
The provincial health department sent an investigation team led
by deputy director Liao Xinbo to Jieyang on Thursday morning to
assess the situation.
Some media reports have said investigators from the Ministry of
Health were also on hand in Jieyang on Thursday.
To ensure a regular supply of blood, the local government urged
government officials, public servants and medical staff to donate
blood.
The raid comes as the latest strike in an ongoing struggle
against the illegal blood trade. The lid was pulled back on this
unseemly business after it emerged that entire villages in Central
China's Henan Province had been infected with HIV after receiving
tainted batches of blood.
"The 'blood selling tribes' in Jieyang have not triggered a
community disaster like the AIDS villages in Henan. Let's just say
that Guangdong is lucky," said a commentary on phoenixtv.com. "The
authorities in Guangdong really had no idea what was going on
before it was exposed by the media? If all the people working at
the homeless shelters, blood collecting stations, public security
departments and health departments had been doing their jobs, these
'blood selling tribes' would not have been around for more than 20
years," said the commentary.
According to the Blood Donation Law, which came into force on
October 1, 1998, healthy citizens between the ages of 18 and 55 are
able to donate blood voluntarily. The law also stipulates that
donors are not allowed to give more than 400 milliliters of blood
per time and must wait at least six months before making
donations.
However, people in northeastern Guangdong are reluctant to
donate blood. It is believed that doing so robs people of their
vitality. This situation has provided fertile soil in which the
blood gangs could ply their trade, keeping local blood banks full
and meeting hospitals' demands.
(China Daily April 7, 2007)