Quotes of the Day
When a medical team from the World Health Organization (WHO) met with
China's Vice Premier Wu Yi on April 9, members hoped they had found an
ally in their efforts to get bureaucrats to come clean on the extent of
the mainland's SARS epidemic. The Communist Party's most senior woman,
Wu is a tough, gray-haired former trade negotiator, and she understood
that the free exchange of information on the disease, believed to have
originated in China, could help WHO investigators prevent a global
pandemic. Wu said she had personally dispatched crews to two provinces
to investigate outbreaks, and promised improvements in China's updates
on the number of infected. She even told members her concern kept her up
so many nights that "I'm taking sleeping pills."
She might need to renew her prescription. A week later, hospitals in the
capital city of Beijing were playing shell games with SARS patients,
moving them around the city in ambulances so they wouldn't be discovered
by the WHO. Patient numbers were still being underreported (the WHO says
there may be 200 cases in Beijing compared with the official government
number of 40), investigators were not allowed access to medical records,
and whistle-blowers were offering embarrassing accounts of official
cover-ups to the foreign press. China's new leadership, led by President
Hu Jintao, suddenly found itself entangled in an international
credibility crisis. Finally, months after the outbreak began, the
Politburo Standing Committee, the country's top ruling body, ordered an
end to the obfuscation: late last week, the committee demanded
"accurate, timely and honest reporting of the SARS situation" from
cadres throughout the country. With it came a warning: local and
provincial officials "will be held accountable."
When the crisis began, Beijing's top concern was ensuring economic growth. Propaganda departments barred the media from covering the outbreak, worried that word of a mysterious new disease spreading on the mainland would crush commerce. In his first comments on the disease—coming five months after the initial signs of the illness—Minister of Health Zhang Wenkang on April 3 scoffed at the WHO's warnings to avoid travel in southern China, believed to be the source of SARS. "It is perfectly safe to come to China to work, travel and hold business meetings," he insisted.
But people kept getting sick, and as news of fresh victims leaked out,
Hu's efforts to shape his new government in a populist, people-first
mold have been undermined. China's booming economy, which grew nearly
10% in the first quarter, is feeling the fallout, too. The volume of
fast-food sales in chains like McDonald's and KFC fell 20% in southern
China in recent weeks, according an industry source (KFC confirms sales
fell but says they are now returning to normal). Despite the WHO's
travel warning, the government refused to cancel its twice-yearly
Guangzhou Trade Fair, which began on April 15 in the capital city of a
province that has reported nearly 1,300 cases of SARS. Last year,
135,000 foreign businessmen elbowed through exhibition halls at the
fair, signing $18.5 billion in deals. Fewer than 8,000 people attended
this year's SARS-tainted affair, which featured mainly rows of bored
Chinese exhibitors from around the country. Many of them would have
stayed home, too, but the government ordered them to attend. "We know
the situation is bad and scary, but as a Shanghai organizer, I had to
tell our companies that it is okay," says Ms. Hou, who is overseeing a
1,000-plus person delegation. When her group returns to Shanghai, it
will be quarantined for 14 days. The exhibition "is too desperate for
money," Hou complains, "and our lives are at risk." Hers and, across
China, how many more?
- Matthew Forney / Beijing
- Beijing is calling for an end to the SARS cover-up, but the damage to China's credibility has been done