Daughter receives Magsaysay Award in place of SARS doctor

Manila (AsiaNews/SCMP) – Ms Jiang Rui, daughter of Jiang Yanyong, the Chinese surgeon known as the "SARS doctor" and whistle-blower, collected the Magsaysay Award, Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, in place of her father.

"This award is not only to honour him for his contribution to public service, but is also given to recognise his courage in speaking the truth," Ms Jiang said during the award ceremony. "Speaking the truth [. . .] is difficult. But it has to be done. This [. . .] has not only encouraged my father, but will encourage humanist Chinese people as well," she added.

Although Ms Jiang collected the award, the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation insisted she was not Dr Jiang's official agent. "There was no official representative for Dr Jiang," communications officer Lourdes Mercado-Balbin said. "She did not seat with the awardees on stage, but with the audience."

Speaking from his Beijing home, Dr Jiang said he did not know if his daughter was receiving the award on his behalf. "I don't know. I am always at home. Do you have any news [for me]?" the doctor asked without much to say about his absence. According to Hu Jia, a friend of Dr Jiang, "from the tone of his voice it is clear that there are lots of things he can't say."

In the official citation, Dr Jiang was praised for breaking "China's habit of silence" and forcing "the truth of SARS into the open". In its original version the citation also said –"Jiang has not forgotten the events at Tiananmen in 1989, and calls upon China's leaders to acknowledge their disturbing truths"–, but according to the Foundation, the text was changed on the recipient's request.

In April 2003 Dr Jiang wrote an open letter to the media revealing the names of those responsible for the SARS affair. In doing so he took the risk of breaking the code of silence imposed by the Chinese government. Chinese authorities quickly followed suit and launched a massive prevention campaign against the virus.

He was arrested on June 1 of this year along with his wife for sending a letter to China's leaders in which he asked them to acknowledge that the Tiananmen protests were a "patriotic movement" and urged them to "correct the errors of the Party".

Dr Jiang is now under house arrest. Last week he made public the reasons for not going to Manila. "Although I have retired," he said, "I still work for the military and there are rules that don't allow me to go abroad."

Last year, authorities in Henan province (north-eastern China) prevented AIDS activist Gao Yaojie from receiving the same award in person.

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• sars
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• yanyong
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• health
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