The Yanbian county court accepted the case in one week but did not follow the common practice of scheduling a hearing for a date within the next three months.

"The delay came about because the county education bureau has tried to give Xiao Jun a certain amount of money so that he will withdraw the case. But it won't offer him the job," Xu said, without disclosing the amount offered.

Xiao Jun said that he would not accept the money. "I just want a job to support my parents, since I am an only child," he told China Daily.

"I would even accept a non-teaching job in the school from the education bureau."

"We are confident about winning this case," Xu, whose practice is based in Kunming, Yunnan province, told China Daily in a telephone interview. He said China's AIDS Prevention and Treatment Regulation stipulates that HIV carriers and AIDS patients have the right to be married, employed, treated for medical conditions and enrolled in schools.

But a staff member of the bureau, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Xiao Jun has no chance of obtaining a job in China, largely because the general public is afraid to put their children in a classroom supervised by an HIV-positive teacher.