China, the Evil Empire (of SARS)

April 19, 2003 | Richard

[FreepForever]

I was intrigued to see the NYT article today on how the Chinese government's mishandling of SARS has totally demolished its painstaking efforts to position itself as a fast-changing, dynamic society that is moving closer and closer to liberalizing its laws, its policies and its general philosophy. You must read this article in full to understand just how grievously China has damaged itself with this fiasco.

There is no doubt that in some ways China is changing, especially in regard to trade and economic policy. There have also been some baby-steps in the right direction when it comes to education (problem solving is slowly being encouraged, not simply "chalk and talk" memorization). But what SARS has shown the world is that for all the fireworks, for all the self-congratulatory praise we see on CCTV and read in China Daily about "the new China," politically the country is rotten to the core, atrophied and extinct.

The article wastes no time getting to the point:

China's restrictions on information about a highly infectious respiratory illness has undermined five years of diplomacy intended to alter its image as a prickly regional power and to improve relations with neighboring countries, Asian politicians and analysts say.

Beijing's secretiveness for much of the last several weeks about severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, contrasts sharply with the openness of its neighbors, even one-party states like Singapore. It also reflects the emphasis China puts on overall social stability above individuals' well-being, many argue.

That last sentence contains the keys to understanding this strange nation. The obsession, to the point of insanity, that the government places on "social stability" and "harmony" makes this government an enemy to its own people. To ensure social stability and harmony, the fundamental necessity is to look good. This is a government that lives to make itself look good, so that people remain placid and accepting of (or better still, oblivious to) the sh!t going on around them.

Worried about a new catastrophic disease that could kill your citizenry by the thousands? Don't give it a second thought -- the Chinese plutocracy has the ideal answer: Don't do anything. If you say nothing, you might be able to contain it. Taking that awful risk is far more attractive an alternative than informing people, and in so doing creating "disharmony."

Now, any sane, rational government knows that contagious diseases don't give a flying fuck about Mao's Red Book and won't be contained in just one village because Jiang Zemin wants them to be. But let's give them the benefit of the doubt for a moment and assume the Chinese leaders are not totally brain damaged. Let's say they really believed this sort of wishful thinking might work. After learning that this policy was an absolute disaster -- in fact, a tragedy of unimaginable dimensions for millions of Chinese citizens -- wouldn't they then know at least not to do the same thing again?

Normally the answer would be yes. But this is no normal government. This government did the exact same thing for nearly 10 years with AIDS, ignoring it, stigmatizing those infected, and setting up every conceivable obstacle to creating awareness and preventative measures for its people. Its people, for whom this government supposedly exists. Ha. (For reference, see what I wrote just a few days ago on the AIDS holocaust here in China.)

In other words, they learned nothing from their repellent "see-no-evil" approach to AIDS, which now threatens to turn China into the next Africa in terms of AIDS infection. The audacity, the sheer hubris of these pompous oafs who, as SARS began to spread through Beijing were lauding one another on television and clinking champagne glasses for the farcical rubber-stamp "People's Congress" -- these bast_rds knew, and they did nothing, just as they did nothing in the late-80s as contaminated blood flowed into the veins of its citizens across their vast nation, sentencing innocent men, women and children to a lifetime of stigmatization and the guarantee of death without dignity. Acknowledging the tragedy may have made them look bad, and we can't have any of that now, can we?

They knew. And they said nothing. Fifteen years ago, and today. And you wonder why I am hard on the Chinese government?

As I prepare to leave this country, I worry less and less about telling the truth. To say that another way, I have always tried to tell the truth here, but often I felt I had to tone down my rancor, soften the blows. Right now, I just don't care, and I want whomever happens to stop by this little site to know the truth about China, or at least what I perceive that truth to be: China is the Evil Empire, a tottering, power-drunk, paranoid nation of thugs dressing themselves up as saviors -- a bad country. It was for the b_stards we saw smiling and waving at the "People's Congress" that my God made hell.

Any questions?

Footnote: I refer only to the Chinese government here. The people I know here are gracious, kind and good. They know, to a large extent, what their "leaders" are all about. Luckily for these good people, the SARS f_ck-up has been of such great magnitude that it could end up resulting in long-term change and improvement here. Maybe. It has certainly opened the eyes of the world as to what "the new China" is all about.

[FreepForever]

I came across this remarkable piece yesterday. Apparantly, Richard is an expatriate working in Beijing but is preapred to leave soon. So, he is not afraid to speak the truth despite China's iron fist control on media. His view of the SARS situation and his understanding of the China government is acute.

[FreepForever]

Can you give your Communist China list a heads up? Thanks!

[FreepForever]

Time Asia is reporting that earlier this week, Hospitals in the Chinese capital hid SARS patients from international health officials. In an amazing story, Time details how patients were moved to other hospitals, moved to hotels, and even driven around Beijing in ambulances, all to avoid the WHO inspection team. They are also reporting that internal memos say there have been 100 new cases of SARS in Beijing in the past 10 days, even as the official count remains at 37

[henderson field]

Anyone who lets people from China into the United States has rocks in ther head.

[ex-Texan]

The real truth is buried deep in China. In secret labs where they have people very sick and dying and now hidden away in military hospitals. China has admitted very little.

The truth is probably far worse. Yesterday the Arab News published an editorial that was directly accusing China of letting a genetic experiment with an unknown coronavirus escape from a secret weapons lab. (Scroll down)

In the meantime, the total number of known and officially admitted SARS cases exploded from 100 in China to over 3,700 cases in 27 countries. In just about 3 weeks.

I am concerned the situation is far worse than we know or even suspect. Tell Richard to leave as soon as possible. In two weeks the number of SARS cases may double.

But who am I to question the vast liberal media and its self-imposed censorship of anything negative about China, Cuba, N.K., Venezuela, Iraq, Syria, Russia ... ?

[ikka]

They drove them around to different hospitals? Won't that increase the chances of even more people getting sick?

[FreepForever]

No, the drove them for a city tour around Beijng. After a few hours, when the WHO inspectors had left the military hospital, they put them back on bed.

Worst of all, despite protests, medical workers are forced to stay with these highly contagious patients inside the ambulance for that few hours.

Even worse, this can spread the decease city-wide.

[FreepForever]

Thanks. I have the same suspicion too. Knowing the China government, their initial cover-up and news-blackout is unproportional to just saving face. There must be something more incriminating that they want to hide,

[FreepForever]

This is an insider's view of the SARS situation in China that you might be interested.

[Petronski]

Very interesting. Can you supply the referenced NYT article? Or a link?

[Brian Allen]

<< That last sentence contains the keys to understanding this strange nation. The obsession, to the point of insanity, that the government places on "social stability" and "harmony" makes this government an enemy to its own people .....

..... There must be something more incriminating that it wants to hide ..... >>

There is always "something more incriminating that it wants to hide .... "

The Peking based gang of psychopathological thugs, liars, looters, thieves and mass-murderers that so grandiosely calls itself "china," does not lead a "nation," it rules an invaded, conquered, colonized and enslaved totalitarian state -- and has only victims, prisoners and slaves.

It is not by any stretch of the word, "a government."

Except on Taiwan, home of the twenty two and a half million FRee Men of the FRee Republic of China, there are no "Chinese People."

[Dog Gone]

There is no doubt that China actively covered up the SARS problem. The firing of the health officials responsible is an admission of that, even if those people are merely scapegoats.

I guess the good news is that they didn't try to cover it up for 15 years as they did with AIDS, although they had little choice. The cat got out of the bag in Hong Kong.

[FreepForever]

The link is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/18/science/sciencespecial/18CHIN.html

I canot access the link myself. The site requires me to register. If you can, can you copy and post the article under this thread? Thanks!

[FreepForever]

What we all fear of is: the firing of the Health Department Chief and the Beijing Vice Mayor is all but a part of a charade, the cover-up of an even bigger mess that we don't know about. It is not the first time that China uses another lie to cover a lie.

[Dog Gone]

But does it make any difference? SARS is quickly spreading worldwide. Saudi Arabia even has a case now.

If China told us that they had 10,000 cases now, I'm not sure how it would change things.

[FreepForever]

The "difference" is not in the numbers, the "difference" is in the cause. And, thus, the motive of the cover-up is different.

There is suspicion that the first batch of patients with SARS symptoms (now dead) were microbiologists working in a Chinese (bioweapon) laboratory. Some terrible accidents happened within the lab and they were treated in a public hospital. This is probably how the virus was spread to the medical workers and, eventually, to the community in Guangdong. Had they known the contagious capability of the virus, they probably wouldn’t treat them in a public hospital.

This corroborates China Government's initial uncooperative attitude to allow WHO scientists to perform on-site investigation. And, the massive cover-up and news blackout. Furthermore, ever since the outbreak, Beijing has maintained that the SARS is caused by chlamydia (instead of coronavirus as confirmed by WHO, CDC, HKU & etc).

Tech note: Chlamydia is a bacteria, not a virus. If the pathogen of SARS is actually chlamydia, as China had all along claimed, it can be treated with antibiotics. However, according to the senior medical staff in both HKU, HKCU and the Prince of Wales Hospital, none of the hundreds of patients responded to treatment by antibiotics. Thus, eliminating the possibility that the decease is caused by any bacteria (including chlamydia).

Only on 12 April (Sat) did the Guangdong Health Authority’s Chief publicly admitted that despite the strongest chlamydia specific antibiotic used, none of the Guangdong patients responded to the drug. He also went on to confirm that both China and Hong Kong SARS are caused by the same mutant strain of coronavirus. This bombshell is an unsaid confession that the Beijing Administration has been lying to the public and WHO since day one. I admire this Guangdong health official's courage, he is putting his career (or life) on the line to expose this government deception.

This leads to the question: Why are they trying to mislead the public in the first place? Can they claim that since the SARS in China and HK are caused by different viruses, therefore China is not the source of SARS? That sounds a rather lame argument indeed. Whether China wants to admit it or not, all indications and the world's fingers are pointing towards Guangdong/China being the original source of SARS which spread to Hong Kong as a springboard to the world.

Are all these efforts just a matter of face saving? This sounds not convincing enough. What are they actually trying to cover up? Are there something even more incriminating that China doesn't want the international community to know? Well, this is not a smoking gun. There’ll never be one. But you can draw your own conclusion.