When Tian Xi was nine years old he contracted HIV/AIDS from a blood transfusion at Xincai Country No 1 People's Hospital in central China's Henan Province.
He is now 23 and since his late teens he has taken up his family's call for compensation for himself and others similarly affected.
On August 6 he was detained by police in Xincai County without his medication or any money, and later arrested. He was taken to the hospital for treatment on August 16 and taken into criminal detention on August 19; his parents were told two days later.
Mr Tian also has the debilitating liver virus hepatitis B and its more deadly cousin hepatitis C.
His mother and aunt went to the police station and asked to see him on August 21, but they were turned away. They were only able to send some clothes in to the pre-trial detention centre.
"Dong, the police officer in charge of my son's case, didn't tell us what is happening to him, only told us that he is 'safe'," Mr Tian's father, Tian Demin, told The Weekend Australian.
"My wife gave Dong 100 yuan last week and asked him to give it to Tian Xi to buy some food, for he needs nutrition, but Dong returned the money when he came back from the detention centre.
"The authorities have issued a notification of arrest and said they will sentence him."
Mr Tian Jr was already a target for authorities. He had previously been detained in Beijing, thrown into a "black jail" -- shadowy detention centres run by local governments for those who come from the country to the capital to petition the central government.
On July 9 the local county government issued a statement about him. "Tian Xi has a complicated background, and his thinking and behaviours are deeply affected by (exiled activist) Wan Yanhai," the statement read.
"He went to Beijing twice recently to make illegal petitions and brought great inconvenience to the local government's supervision of him.
Read more at The Australian
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