Word: jade
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...trees in Kunming's Golden Star neighborhood. "They can easily spot the men wanting sex." The taxi pulls over, and a young woman sashays out from behind the trees. She's wearing a cherry-colored blouse, tight white slacks and a cloud of cloying perfume. Her name is Little Jade, and she behaves less like a predator than prey, glancing nervously up and down the lane for cops - and, with equal apprehension, at the taxi's passengers...
Finally, Little Jade slings herself into the taxi. But her legs are trembling from fear. And no matter how she tries to distract herself, by playing with her blue beaded necklace or with a stretchy piece of elastic hanging from the cab seat, Little Jade can't stop shaking. "I'm always a little scared," she says. "Sometimes, the men beat me up or they'll refuse to pay me after we have...
...AIDS? Little Jade, 21, refuses to be tested because if it turns out she is infected, the clinic would be obliged to tell the authorities. She would be detained because she traveled to Kunming, capital of China's Yunnan province, without the required work papers. Now she sells herself for $17 to men who pass along this lane like gray, restless shadows. She knows that AIDS can kill her, slowly and hideously. "If I get AIDS, I'll go far, far away," she vows. "I'd rather die than shame my mother and father with this. They think...
...Little Jade hasn't already been exposed to the HIV virus, she probably will be soon. In China, according to some foreign health workers, the number of AIDS cases is increasing at a rate of 30% annually. Health authorities now concede that the official national figure of 20,098 HIV cases is a tiny fraction of the reality: around 600,000 cases. Following the usual pattern, the disease is spreading fastest among China's intravenous drug users and among an estimated 4 million to 10 million sex workers, most of whom don't insist their clients use condoms...
Yunnan, bordering on the Golden Triangle, is the worst hit by AIDS - health workers say there are at least 50,000 victims - because of its large population of heroin shooters. Little Jade has only been hustling for two months, but it was long enough to pick up a heroin habit. She says her occasional boyfriend, a hospital orderly, helped her kick the addiction by locking her in a room for 15 agonizing days. However, the disease may already be laying siege to her immune system...