Wan Yanhai

Wan Yanhai is the best-known AIDS activist in China.

His "frank and aggressive" approach toward AIDS have led to frequent run-ins with authorities and landed him in detention three times in the past 12 years. Wan, 43, is the director of the country's foremost AIDS-awareness group, the Beijing-based Aizhixing Institute of Health Education. (The Chinese characters for "Aizhixing" represent love, knowledge and action and are a play on the Chinese word for AIDS.)

He was fired in 1994 from his post as a public health official after setting up the first HIV/AIDS telephone hotline in China where Chinese people can obtain comprehensive information on HIV/AIDS.

On 24 August 2002 he was picked up by police after attending a film screening at a Beijing gay and lesbian film festival and charged with the leaking of an internal government report into the Bloodhead scandal in Henan Province. He was released a month later on 20 September.

After his release in November 27 2006 from his most recent detention on November 24 - this time a three-day stopover prompted by his efforts to organize a public forum on HIV/AIDS to coincide with World AIDS Day - Wan accused Chinese leaders of falling "asleep" as the virus spreads. He was forced to cancel his "Blood Safety, AIDS and Legal Human Rights Workshop" (due to have taken place between 25-30 November), which he had hoped would be attended by participants from around the world. Despite his usual call for more action, however, Wan has been circumspect in talking to the media about his latest detention and also expressed a continuing desire to work with health officials to prevent further spread of the disease.