It was early December, the day after World AIDS Day, 2010. I was
back in Beijing for the first time in 23 years, standing outside
the entrance to the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen
Square. I had an official invitation in hand to a high-level
consultation on China’s national response to the AIDS epidemic,
which is increasingly affecting women and girls. My mind toggled
back to my last visit to China in 1987, when the government had
just decreed mandatory AIDS testing for foreign residents. At
that point in the epidemic, Chinese public health authorities
said the source of the HIV threat was outside of China and they
relied on China’s strong heteronormative culture to protect its
citizens from sexual transmission of AIDS. The government
figured they could contain the threat by focusing on foreigners
and a very small number of gay Chinese men – a highly
stigmatized group in China, as elsewhere. Back then, AIDS was
viewed predominantly as a “gay man’s disease.” Fast forward to
December 2010. Reports releas