http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200304/28/eng20030428_115916.shtml The foreign media is creating unnecessary panic about the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in China with its sensationalist reporting, said Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes Sunday in Shanghai.
Mr Fernandes said he believes there is a "hidden'' agenda behind the "news noise of SARS.''
The visiting defence minister in Shanghai made the remarks in an interview with the Indian media, China News Service reported Sunday.
Mr Fernandes said that Shanghai, for example, had only two confirmed SARS cases among its 17 million residents as of April 24.
Yet in Africa, about 3,000 children died from cholera every day, he said, citing World Health Organization figures.
SARS has been reported on excessively by television, radio and newspapers.
The minister noted that all members of his delegation to China are willing to undergo health checks to show the worldthat there is no need topanic over SARS in Shanghai.
I see Fernandes went to Shanghai. Did he go to Peking? I wonder if the Chinese defense ministry may have moved out of Peking.
Mr Fernandes said that Shanghai, for example, had only two confirmed SARS cases among its 17 million residents as of April 24.That's a very disturbing statement by Fernandes, because nobody in the world believes those figures. The World Health Organization on Friday said that those numbers had to be revised upward, probably in excess of 100 after they visited there.
Fernandes is aware of this. Yet he has chosen to align his statement with those Chinese officials who are deliberately understating the problem.
There's a hidden agenda, all right. It's just not on the part of those he suggests.