SARS Remains Out of Control; Chinese Citizens' Rights to Know the Truth Are Still Being Violated

May 15, 2003

China's Health Department issued a new policy on SARS on Tuesday requiring all government officials to report any outbreaks of infectious diseases to officials higher up at each level and not to conceal any material facts. Observers point out that the principal reason SARS is out of control in China today is the lack of freedom for the news media in China. Citizens' rights to know the truth have been severely trampled on.

According to a report from Voice of America (VOA) on May 14, the Chinese Health Department issued new policies for the prevention and treatment of SARS. The new policies stipulate that the Health Department shall be solely responsible for its monitoring and management. Critics said the earlier policies of the Department of Heath and the State Council--"Emergency measures for Sudden outbreaks of Public Heath Incidents," which required the mandatory reporting to higher authorities at each level without concealment, have failed to prevent SARS from recurring.

According to Cai Maggie, editor of Open Magazine in Hong Kong, the new policies of the Department of Health and State Council, fail to address the fundamental factors for the containment of the SARS epidemic.

Cai said that, some people maintained that China had made great improvement in lifting the bar for reporting on SARS since mid-April. Such views are kind of questionable, as even now, one can clearly see that there is no freedom for the media to report SARS in China. They can only follow the instruction of the Propaganda Department of the incumbent CCP, and report the positive news, article after article of reports on the heroic deeds of those who fought SARS.

On the other hand, said Cai, as a true hero in the Chinese battle against SARS, Jiang Yanyong, a senior doctor in the 310 People's Liberation Army Hospital, did not receive any commendation or media coverage.

In early April, as a senior army doctor, Jiang Yanyong could no longer go along with China's continual spreading of the "SARS was effectively controlled" false message, and revealed the truth to news media in China and the world. So that people around the world got to know that there were many cases of SARS concealed in Beijing. The Chinese Government, under pressure from within and outside China, including the World Health Organization, admitted in mid-April of significant under reporting of the severity of SARS in China earlier.

Cai said from how the Chinese Government treated Jiang Yanyong, people could easily see that China still had no intention to respect citizens' rights to knowing the truth, or to prevent SARS from recurring. Cai also pointed out that SARS also exposed a fundamental problem in China in the past several decades, as tunnel-vision and shortsighted for economic development. "In my view, since China implemented its economic reform and open door policy, China has pursued a lopsided economic development focusing only on increasing the growth rate of the GDP. It equates economic development with national development ignoring improving China as a whole. Issues such as ecology, education, and public health have been put on the back burner."

As of today, SARS is still out of control in China.

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