At first glance, you’d never think that Shuping “Sunshine” Wang walked the courageous and difficult path of a Chinese whistleblower who was forced to start a new life for herself in the USA. She was quick to smile, diligent and quiet in her work and diminutive in stature. To put it another way, she seemed too carefree and generous to have dealt with a Chinese state that had intimidated her, fired her from multiple positions, and threatened her family.

Sadly, Shuping died while hiking with her husband Gary and friends on Sept. 21, 2019, but her story is both relevant and inspiring to all who work in the health sciences. She alerted the Chinese authorities to cross-contamination at for-profit blood collection agencies in Henan province that contributed to a hepatitis C and HIV epidemic in the countryside. When officials tried to discredit her and destroy her findings, she persisted and spoke out more boldly, even taking the train to a lab in Beijing to confirm her HIV positive findings with her own money when she received no support in her home province. All of this led to her being fired, shunned, having to get a divorce, and leaving her home country to be exiled in the USA with no English language skills.

Read the rest of Shuping’s story here.