During a government-sponsored blood donation campaign, peasants from China’s Henan Province queued in front of vans to sell their blood for approximately 5 dollars – equivalent to one month’s wages. 300,000 people were infected with HIV from contaminated equipment and transfusions, sparking a full-blown epidemic, followed by a scandalous cover up.
Executive Produced by Ai Weiwei, this documentary tells the story of Ximei, a young woman who was a victim of China’s “Blood Plasma Economy,” and who now fights against this injustice while also fighting the disease.
Even as local officials try to intimidate Ximei into silence, sequester her in an AIDS Village, and close down her halfway house for victims and their orphans, she single-handedly fights for her fellow patients to receive medical treatment and to overcome social and work discrimination.
Ximei: Fighting China’s AIDS Scandal screens on World AIDS Day.