NAME: Dr Jiang Yanyong

AGE: 72

NATIONALITY: Chinese

CLAIM TO FAME: China’s honest doctor

WHEN you decide to take on the authority, you should be prepared to pay a price for that. Dr Jiang Yanyong had the guts to challenge the Chinese government in order to do what he believed was right and save others; he got away once but he paid the price the second time.

A nationally renowned surgeon, Communist Party member and People’s Liberation Army veteran, Dr Jiang was reported missing along with his elderly wife on June 2, 2004, two days before the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. He was apparently taken into custody by the authorities. His wife was released after a couple of weeks and the doctor returned home early last week after about 45 days in military custody. It is reported that while in detention Dr Jiang was kept in a room under 24-hour supervision, undergoing forced political indoctrination classes and interrogations about his letter. A letter that saved thousands, if not more, Chinese lives.

Though released, he is to be kept under surveillance and prohibited from making contact with outsiders.

Known as a man of courage, the aging doctor first came to limelight when he wrote an open letter to the Chinese Premier, several deputy premiers, the Politburo and many other members of the Chinese government. Jiang called on the party to reappraise the events of June 1989, when hundreds of people died in pro-democracy protests brutally suppressed by the authorities in what is known as the Tiananmen Square massacre. In the letter he asked the party leaders to address what he calls a “mistake”.

A man of honesty and courage, last year too Dr Jiang Yanyong put his career, reputation and personal safety on stake by exposing the Chinese government’s attempt to understate the number of Sars cases in the country. Dr Jiang, then working in a military hospital, wrote a letter to the media reporting that health workers were told to keep the real extent of the disease a secret. In a country where anonymously challenging official truths is common, by writing his full-name and phone number the doctor knew he was at great risk. But Jiang feared more for the lives of others. “As a doctor,” he wrote in his letter, “I have a responsibility to aid international and local efforts to prevent the spread of Sars.”

His letter forced the resignation of the Mayor of Beijing and the Minister of Public Health and the Chinese government was forced to actively deal with the growing epidemic. Chinese leaders emerged from the crisis with their authority intact and praise for acting quickly to control the outbreak. But it was the courageous act of the aging doctor that made the government act in time to stop the spread of the disease from reaching epidemic proportions, both at home and abroad.

Last year he was ignored for going against the official line because it was deemed that he was working for the people. Not so, this time. With his arrest and subsequent release, China’s “honest doctor” has become its most famous and credible dissident.