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County shuts down private Aids orphanage

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Critics say the government built a rival institution to take control of donations

An Aids orphanage in Henan run by an Aids patient has been shut by local government officials after Central China Television (CCTV) raised one million yuan to support the children.

Aids activists and the man who runs the orphanage allege the officials closed the facility to get control of the money.

Workers from the Tuocheng county government went to the farmhouse of Zhu Jinzhong on Sunday and removed about a dozen children, taking them to a new government-run orphanage in a nearby village, Mr Zhu claimed.

He said yesterday that county officials had ordered him to shut the orphanage by January 29 on the grounds that he had Aids and had not officially adopted the 53 children. Many of the children had refused to leave, accounting for the dozen remaining on Sunday.

'The children were crying and refusing to leave. They have been living with me for a year and I am like a father to them,' Mr Zhu said.

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