Chinese father seeks government's release of AIDS activist son

Tian Xi was taken into custody earlier this month after he lost his temper and smashed office equipment during a meeting with the administrator of the hospital where he was infected. Fellow activists have said the 23-year-old was arrested because he angered local officials with his tireless campaigning.

“My child started on this path of petitioning at the age of 17 and this path has led him to today. He said 'If the government doesn't resolve my case, I will fight to the end, I will fight until my death,'” Tian Demin told The Associated Press.

Tian Xi is being held at the Shangcai County Detention Center and his family worry conditions there are too difficult. He has already missed two doses of drugs that need to be taken a precise times, his father said.

“I want to bring him home where we can take care of him. He needs treatment,” Tian Demin said,.

An official at the detention center said Tian Xi was being held in a room designed for inmates with AIDS, who are more common in Henan due to unregulated blood-buying schemes there in the mid-90s that contaminated blood supplies.

Lawyer Liang Xiaojun said he would appeal for Tian Xi's release while awaiting trial.

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