Call for equality

In fact, not only Taylor, but also many Chinese experts also suggest modification of the standards, including Pu Cunxin, a famous film star who is also China's first AIDS ambassador.

On March 5 when the annual sessions of the NPC and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) were held in Beijing, Pu submitted a motion to the CPPCC National Committee, proposing to remove the AIDS-related clause from the standards. He even suggested that departments of health and other government departments at various levels give priority to hiring people with HIV/AIDS so that they can be equitably employed.

It was not the first time for Pu to make such a proposal at the CPPCC session and this year again he received no reply from any departments, and the standards are still there blocking the road for those with HIV/AIDS to work for the government.

Unfounded fear

Institutional discrimination can be eliminated by modifying related laws and institutions, but fear in people's mind can not be eliminated easily.

"Compared with HIV/AIDS itself, irrational fear of AIDS is much more dreadful, and it can even spread invisibly," said Zhang Qianfan, Professor of Peking University Law School, in an interview with Workers' Daily.

According to the Report on the Discrimination Against People Living With HIV/AIDS completed at the end of 2009, of the 1,877 people with HIV/AIDS surveyed, 277, or 14.8 percent, had been refused employment or got fired because of their HIV status; 12.1 percent had been refused entry by hospitals when they got sick; and 9.1 percent were refused insurance claims. A total of 9 percent of those surveyed even said that their children, who are not necessarily living with HIV/AIDS, were forced to leave their schools because of the demands from other parents.

Jia Jia of Xingtai, Hebei Province is a middle school student who has clearly felt the sting of discrimination. The 14-year-old girl could not remember how many schools she has been to. Jia Jia's mother was infected with HIV via blood transfusion in a private hospital.

"Once her new classmates and teachers know this, I would take her to a new school or even to a new city," Jia Jia's father told Caixin Century publication. "She seldom speaks at school." He said he doesn't want to sue the hospital that infected his wife as this would publicize the fact and make finding a school for his daughter eve more difficult.