Members of the community and volunteers for people living with HIV pose for a group photo at the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial in Beijing on Sunday. Photo: Dong Feng/GT

An HIV-positive man sued Kweichow Moutai Co, China's leading baijiu maker, for refusing to hire him after allegedly testing his HIV status without his consent. 

The man, Liu Yuan (pseudonym), from Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, told the Global Times that he was informed that the result of his body check was "abnormal" on June 24 after he participated in Moutai's physical examination, and he found out on June 28 that he was not on the recruitment list despite getting an offer from the company.

Liu said Moutai told him that they were not hiring him because they were "worried it may affect the company's image and cause panic among staff members if his case spreads."

Liu noted that the company took him to an HIV test room during the second physical examination on July 10, and he claimed the company had made HIV antibody tests on his blood samples without telling him. 

A notice Liu showed to the Global Times said AIDS patients do not meet the company's standards. Liu claimed that the standards violated his right to equal employment.

A Moutai staffer told thepaper.cn that they informed Liu that the results of his physical examination were not normal, and recommended further tests. But it was Liu who revealed his status to the company

China's laws and regulations state that HIV carriers and their family members enjoy the right to marriage, employment and education. Liu then filed a case to a local court on Wednesday, and the court accepted it. 

People living with HIV/AIDS still get discriminated in Chinese society. A man named Xie Peng (pseudonym) was found HIV-positive in a company-organized HIV antibody test, and was fired in June 2017. 

Xie later reached an agreement with the company on April 28, which allowed Xie to return to his job with compensation following court mediation, the West China City Daily reported in 2018.

In November 2018, China's Center for Disease Control said that 850,000 people were HIV-positive, 12 percent more than a year earlier and almost three times the number in 2010, and 262, 000 people had died of AIDS-related complications.