The Chinese Communist Party's gay bar
Today is World Aids Day, a day which China has taken very seriously ever since it emerged in 2001 that 30,000 to 50,000 people in Henan had been infected with the HIV virus through botched blood transfusions.
Each year, China's leaders visit patients with HIV or Aids in hospital, shake their hands, call for greater awareness and pose for photos.
There's usually a range of other publicity stunts across the country, to show how tolerant and permissive the Communist party is. Inevitably, the CCP comes across a bit like your dad trying to be cool.
This year, the Global Times, a branch of the People's Daily and therefore an official mouthpiece of the party, proclaimed that a government-run gay bar would open on World Aids Day in the south west province of Yunnan.
In the backpacker town of Dali, China's first state-sanctioned gay bar would serve as a "common room for partner education" according to the paper. Around 120,000 yuan (£10,600) of public money was going to subsidise its opening costs.
Yunnan was chosen because it has the highest number of HIV/Aids cases in the country. "We might not even sell beverages in the bar. We will turn the bar into a centre to offer lectures and training to gay people in order to reduce Aids infections among them," said Zhang Jianbo, the bar manager. Sounds like fun!
Well, of course it was too "right-on" to be last long. The volunteers who were going to run the bar have now all mysteriously quit and the Health ministry has nixed the project before it even opened. A spokesman refused to comment.
There are, of course, no shortage of actual gay bars in China, ones that serve drinks and play music. A cheerless bar full of government-sponsored lectures would probably have been a waste of money all round anyway.
The Chinese High Street has more muscle