Beijing Battles SARS A Correspondent at Ground Zero

Author: Tim McCahill

Spring arrives in Beijing when the willow trees start to pollinate. The willows, which grace the sides of Beijing's avenues, sprout tufts of white seed that float across the city on winds blown in from the northwest. The tufts amass on the sidewalks in thin layers, making Beijing's spring as white as Vermont's is brown.
This year, the air is carrying something different - and it is scaring people to death. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is front page news in Beijing. The fact that it is making the headlines is news in itself. Although the disease originated in southern China last November, the government did not acknowledge the existence of SARS until earlier this month.
Some headway is being made, however. Last Sunday the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) fired Zhang Wenkang, the health minister, and Meng Xuenong, the mayor of Beijing, because of their failure to report the extent of SARS in the Chinese capital. The move was historic: it has been more than a decade since Chinese government leaders were purged for their mistakes. Despite its significance, Zhang's sacking was announced by the New China News Service in a pithy one-line statement, while news of Meng's removal was given slightly more space in Beijing newspapers.
More attention has been placed on the revised number of SARS cases in Beijing, which skyrocketed to some 402 people following an announcement made by the government during a press conference last Sunday. The new figure is a sign that the CCP has finally capitulated to international pressure and, hopefully, has realized that continued underreporting of SARS poses a serious threat to people's well-being - and foreign investment.
Since the firing of Zhang and Meng and the acknowledgement of more SARS cases, the mood in Beijing has been one of relief tinged with distrust.
In recent weeks the government's silence on SARS fueled speculation on the number of sick in the city. Rumors begat doubt, which in turn begat fear and anger. Beijing cabbies, whose cars must now be disinfected twice a week, describe the government's attempt at disease control with strings of vituperation. More reserved residents just wonder whether it is safe to go out shopping.
Although people's concerns may have been alleviated, lingering doubts about how long the Party's new honesty will last remain, particularly given that the number of SARS cases elsewhere in China - in densely-packed cities like Shanghai and in regions bordering Guangdong Province, where the disease is to have originated - are still suspiciously low. It will take more than lip service and regular hand-washing to convince regular Chinese - and the outside world - that this is really the case.