| Tom, I'm in agreement with Zhao in that I think your conspiracy theory about the western press is a bit overblown. Perhaps labor unions are anti-China but this does not mean that they somehow have enough influence to make the press anti-China as well. I will add that I think the sentiment of labor unions stems from fear of change and lack of understanding. At the end of the day, the continued growth of China into a strong, economic power is extremely positive for the American economy and hopefully (wishful thinking) labor unions can come to understand that free trade is a win-win (yes, 2+2 can equal 5), if it only means a willness to change and adapt in the short-run. But to answer your questions, if you look hard enough on the internet, you will find views about everything: that 9/11 was some sort of Jewish conspiracy to turn America against Islam, that there is a secret hangar in the New Mexico desert housing the bodies of aliens, that the Chinese government continues to underreport SARS cases, that the US press is under the control of the AFL-CIO, etc., etc. And depending on who you are, each one of these views seems credible to a different extent. So why does a site like www.laogai.org exist? Well, unfortunately I cannot access the site. I don't know whether this is due to the fact that I am on the other side of the Great Firewall, or what, but from its name I imagine it is about labor camps in China. So why do I think the site exists? Because labor camps existed and still exist in China and someone, perhaps someone who has lived through one, has a story to tell. If the stories may be in the interest of the AFL-CIO, does it follow that they must be untrue or distorted? Not at all. There are many dark spots (and many bright ones) in the history of China (especially in the last 50 years) and labor/re-educations camps certainly fall into the former category. Yet, few truly know what goes on behind the walls. But there are survivors or ex-guards with stories to tell and these stories are newsworthy. We, as intelligent human beings, can judge them for what we feel they are worth. And I actually disagree with you that the reporting about China is unbalanced. SARS reporting aside (I'll get to that in a minute), recent articles I have read range from the negative: the double-agent spy arrested for stealing secrets from the FBI, the US government citing China's poor human rights record; to the mundane: China buying new planes from Airbus, the discovery of more Pandas in the wild which were previously unknown; to the positive: the cooperation the US and China have had in dealing with the N. Korea issue, China surpassing the UK to become the #5 trading nation in the world, S&P upgrading China's debt rating. Regarding SARS, I think it is very justifiable for the press to be critical of the handling of the situation in Beijing and without pressure from the international community, the official tally of Beijing SARS cases might still read 37. But I want to further criticize the way that Beijing has handled the release of information over the past week. I disagree with luo that this has served to minimize widespread panic but rather feel panic has not struck as hard anywhere else. It has been mass exodus out of Beijing. I've been between Guangdong and HK since February and I would say the mood here is one of great care, concern, and vigilance but nothing like the panic that my friends in Beijing (most of whom are leaving because of it) are describing. The following is my opinion. Take it for what it is worth. When the news was blown last Sunday, it was announced in very clever fashion. There were 339 confirmed cases and 402 suspected cases in Beijing. It is my opinion that these were all confirmed cases but it would have looked very bad to go from 37 to 741 overnight. So, the government took to increasing the numbers by over a hundred a day until we reached the total today of nearly 1000. Somewhere along the way, they stopped reporting suspected cases or atleast I cannot find figures on Beijing suspected cases anymore. A sustained hundred a day is a rate of increase unseen anywhere else and has created a panic unseen anywhere else. If my hypothesis is correct, the past week has probably only seen about 250 new cases in Beijing or about 40 new cases a day. The government has indicated that there is no living area with mass infections like there were in HK. If this is true, I predict the rate of increase should stabilize next week. Again, this is pure conjecture. Let me finish by saying that I am extremely pro-China. This is one of the most incredible countries in the world and I hold it very dear. But at the same time, I am not afraid to look at things I hold dear and point out what I believe to be areas that need to be changed. It is the great quality of open societies for their governments to be able to admit wrong, to be self-critical, to be unafraid of change. China has taken great steps towards an open economy over the past 25 years yet political reform has lagged. For it to achieve the success over the next century that many predict for it, political reform is a necessity. And if some good has come out of SARS, perhaps it is that the government now realizes it needs to open up and recognize that there are areas where change is needed. It is my hope that political reform does occur and perhaps the second half of this century will indeed be China's to have. |
Protect China - Not Only Against SARS