囧: Beijing University Health Sciences Centre Accused of Hepatitis-B Discrimination

Beijing University has once again fallen into controversy, this time, over allegations that it has discriminated against Hepatitis-B carriers, short people, and obese people. RFA reports that in an open letter to the president of the university, a Beida student -Lei Chuang (雷闯) has pointed out that a person from the office the Health Sciences Centre has openly stated that the centre will not enroll Hepatitis-B carriers, and that male students must be over 1.6 meters tall, females over 1.5 meters tall, and prospective students’ body weight must not be 20% over the average. (One wonders what the vertically-challenged but brilliant Deng Xiaoping and the corpulent Mao Zedong might have thought of such a discriminatory policy).

Lei Chuang was compelled to write the open letter after first going to the Beijing University president’s office and the Health Sciences Centre to discuss the issue. Lei reports that neither office paid much attention to the issue.

Therefore, on 6 April Lei and some fellow students protested at the gates of Beijing University and Qinghua University with signs reading “Hepatitis-B” (乙肝), “Discrimination” (歧视) and “Shock!” (囧), (a popular civil society-created character used on the Internet to express dismay upon learning about ridiculous or shocking situations). 

According to RFA, on April 14, Lu Jun, director of the Hepatitis-B Carriers Support Group Yirenping, submitted a report to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health entitled “A Letter to the Authorities Regarding the Serious and Illegal Discriminatory Behavior at Beijing University’s Health Sciences Centre” so that the authorities would be aware of the situation.

Like HIV, Hepatitis B is not spread through everyday common contact, but rather through the transmission of sexual fluids, blood transfusions, or re-used needles. China has an estimated 130 million Hepatitis-B carriers, many of whom face institutional discrimination in the workplace, in the education system, and in society at large. CLB has worked with civil society groups to help give victims of discrimination an avenue of redress through the courts.