Despite strong economic development and promises of continued reform, the new Chinese leadership has had a nightmarish beginning.
A heritage of lies threatens not only China's own aspirations of becoming a great power, but over the long term, it also threatens the recovery of the global economy.
Silence, cover-ups and flat denial are still part of the political culture in this, the world's most populous, nation.
The responsibility for the increasingly alarming SARS epidemic rests on the shoulders of this one-party state.
The reasons for this are, in equal parts, incompetence, arrogance and lack of accountability. The top-level generational change has also resulted in neither bureaucracy nor doctors daring to disturb the order or the status quo by exposing an uncomfortable truth. The Communist Party regards bad news as state secrets. This is an instinctive reaction deeply embedded in the party and the power elite.
The international reputation of the PRC has sustained an unprecedented blow, and the World Health Organization's (WHO) temporary blacklisting of Beijing as a travel destination is the ultimate humiliation.
But that is exactly where the key to the virus lies.
The SARS epidemic is a catalyst for change. The leadership has been forced to act. Passivity has been transformed into aggressive activity. From one extreme to another, this new openness has contributed to the panic seen in Beijing.
The real danger is not now, but in the future. Current efforts are primarily aimed at damage control. But this is not enough, and China needs assistance to take the next step.
The public health-care system, previously admired as a model for poorer countries, has not survived the reforms and the so-called socialist market economy. Health care has instead become a class issue, and the free medical care introduced by Mao Zedong (
In the countryside, health clinics and health services have fallen into decay. Costs are so high that people no longer can afford to see a doctor. The fact that the SARS-virus could kill means little, since 80 percent of the infected recover relatively quickly even without medication. As a result of the silence about SARS imposed on the media, most people see possible symptoms simply as symptoms of any of a number of flu epidemics. The unknown numbers in the ongoing epidemic are, therefore, probably great.
We have experienced this before. The AIDS epidemic in China is another terrifying example of where silence and secrecy may lead. The blood plasma scandal in Henan Province infecting 1 million farmers with HIV could have been avoided with a higher degree of openness.
The SARS virus threatens to trigger a global epidemic, and if the virus were as contagious as the flu, millions of people around the world would have already been hit.
China has misled us all. Authorities refused to inform the WHO, and Guangdong Province kept Hong Kong completely in the dark, despite the fact that the former British colony has been under the jurisdiction of Beijing for five years. First came denials, then standard phrases such as "everything is under control."
The WHO accepted China's unwillingness to cooperate for a full three months. This is a big stain on the otherwise competent leadership of WHO Director-General Gro Harlem-Brundtland. A new, unknown virus that kills, severely crowded living conditions and experiences from earlier flu epidemics are facts that should have caused the global "health police" to threaten with or actually bring in the UN Security Council.
The virus is a potential mass killer.
The most important thing now is to breathe new life into China's health-care system. The existing burden -- AIDS, 170 million hepatitis B infections and much else -- is too heavy, and in the current situation, China is totally incapable of diagnosing and handling new viruses and epidemics, as well as incapable of protecting its own people.
A great expansion of the public health system's capacity is also an absolute requirement if China wants to maintain its high economic growth rate and function as factory to the world. Regardless of income, all Chinese must have access to health care.
It is also important to sanitize the gigantic virus incubator that southern China has become. Millions of people live among pigs, hens, ducks and geese in an environment ideal for any kind of virus. The numbers of mutations and combinations are increasing. Some of them will be even deadlier than SARS. Large amounts of antibiotics in animal feed lead to increased worries about resistant viruses.
SARS is just the beginning of what we can expect to see in the future. This is a biological bomb comparable to any weapon of mass destruction.
If the US and its allies could attack Iraq because former president Saddam Hussein was suspected of possessing nuclear weapons, they should act immediately to disarm this situation.
China is an underdeveloped country and incapable of dealing with this situation on its own. It needs international assistance, both with its health-care system and with "sanitizing" this virus incubator. A new international viral research center must be created in Guangdong Province, the epicenter of the outbreak.
We may also have to consider giving the WHO certain powers to act as a global health police, similar to the UN's weapons inspectors, so that it can act on suspicions of concealed epidemics. These are all big issues that Asian nations should promote internationally and within the UN.
There are many indications that China's new leaders now are prepared to make sacrifices. The SARS epidemic is incredibly costly, and may threaten political stability. It also threatens to isolate the Middle Kingdom, and new viruses and epidemics may even result in the greatest event of all time -- the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing -- being moved.
If any one ever doubted this -- despite 2 million deaths in two earlier epidemics, the Asian flu and the Hong Kong flu -- SARS now gives it to us in black and white: the health of the Chinese people concerns and affects us all.
Helping China is in our own interest as well as a matter of self-preservation.
Bo Gunnarsson is a Tokyo-based freelance writer.
Translated by Perry Svensson
The first Donald Trump term was a boon for Taiwan. The administration regularized the arms sales process and enhanced bilateral ties. Taipei will not be so fortunate the second time around. Given recent events, Taiwan must proceed with the assumption that it cannot count on the United States to defend it — diplomatically or militarily — during the next four years. Early indications suggested otherwise. The nomination of Marco Rubio as US Secretary of State and the appointment of Mike Waltz as the national security advisor, both of whom have expressed full-throated support for Taiwan in the past, raised hopes that
Whether in terms of market commonality or resource similarity, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co is the biggest competitor of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC). The two companies have agreed to set up factories in the US and are also recipients of subsidies from the US CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed into law by former US president Joe Biden. However, changes in the market competitiveness of the two companies clearly reveal the context behind TSMC’s investments in the US. As US semiconductor giant Intel Corp has faced continuous delays developing its advanced processes, the world’s two major wafer foundries, TSMC and
Authorities last week revoked the residency permit of a Chinese social media influencer surnamed Liu (劉), better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), who has more than 440,000 followers online and is living in Taiwan with a marriage-based residency permit, for her “reunification by force” comments. She was asked to leave the country in 10 days. The National Immigration Agency (NIA) on Tuesday last week announced the decision, citing the influencer’s several controversial public comments, including saying that “China does not need any other reason to reunify Taiwan with force” and “why is it [China] hesitant
We are witnessing a sea change in the government’s approach to China, from one of reasonable, low-key reluctance at rocking the boat to a collapse of pretense over and patience in Beijing’s willful intransigence. Finally, we are seeing a more common sense approach in the face of active shows of hostility from a foreign power. According to Article 2 of the 2020 Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法), a “foreign hostile force” is defined as “countries, political entities or groups that are at war with or are engaged in a military standoff with the Republic of China [ROC]. The same stipulation applies to
RSS