A post, reportedly written by a man with HIV, went viral online, because he said he intentionally tried to infect women he had sex with. ThePaper.cn comments:

Sex is the main channel for the spread of HIV. According to official data, sex accounted for 95.1 percent of all HIV cases in 2017 in China. Some might have had sex without knowing they had the virus, but some of them, like the poster, did it maliciously.

That deed is not only highly immoral, but also illegal.

While those with HIV should not be discriminated against and should be treated equally. It is a totally different matter if an HIV carrier intentionally spreads the virus to healthy people.

Those who deliberately infect others should be investigated for criminal responsibility and be punished.

According to the Epidemics Prevention Law and AIDS Prevention and Control Regulation, those who intentionally infect others with the virus break the Criminal Law and they should receive criminal penalties. They must also pay compensation.

Yet the Criminal Law has no specific clause about intentionally spreading HIV yet. By far, the nearest clause is Clause 360, which says those who sell or pay for sex while knowing they have serious venereal diseases face up to five years in prison.

In order to curb this, it is necessary to strengthen the penalties against the illegal deed of intentionally spreading HIV. The legislature needs to amend the Criminal Law to include the new conditions; Before that, the judiciary might consider issuing judicial explanations and suing the illegal doers for threatening public safety, because what they do poses threats to the safety of all.

The relevant departments should pay attention to the practice and severely punish those who ignore the rights and interests of others and threaten their health.