Another Crack in the Great Wall

The list of countries banning HIV-positive visitors continues to shrink. On April 19, the China State Council (analogous to the White House Cabinet) announced that it had approved the repeal of China's 21-year-old HIV travel ban. Five days later Premier Wen Jiabao signed a decree making the policy change official -- just in time for Shanghai world exposition.

Earlier this year the United States lifted its own 23-year-old policy of barring HIV-positive people from entering the country. In response to China's decision, Senator John Kerry, chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, said, "This is evidence that when the United States leads with our ideals, the world takes the power of our example very seriously." Umm ... except most every other western nation never bothered to implement an irrational, discriminatory HIV travel ban in the first place. Call us cynics, but the U.S. has hardly "led with its ideals" in this issue.