Looking back at that last post a few hours later, I am a bit in shock; I don’t usually use such strong language, and it just sort of….appeared. Maybe I needed to say it before I say goodbye to China, to get that out of my system. If anyone’s offended, apologies in advance — but I still think what I wrote is true. I’m just worried about hearing knocks on my door at 2 in the morning…

[Note: I have edited and retitled this post, which started off as an update on SARS, but ended up more an indictment of my host country’s inherently wicked government. TPD, April 19]

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 senile.

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 shit 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 bastards 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 whoever 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 bastards 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 fuck-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.

Extreme anxiety hits the city as a rumor spreads about two students at Beijing University dying this week of SARS. (Friends of mine insist it is true — these are responsible, adult people but who knows?) A Westerner in my office, married to a local woman, heard it from his wife last night and he, too, believes it. “You wouldn’t believe how students live on Beijing campuses,” he told me. “They live in dorm rooms with as many as eight guys, jammed in like cattle. It’s the perfect breeding ground for disease.”

As I said, it’s an unvalidated rumor. But this I can state as fact: All of a sudden they are disinfecting Beijing like there is no tomorrow. I went to the bank today, and two workers with buckets were scrubbing the counters and the floors and the ATM machines. I went back to the hospital and this cleaning frenzy was visible everywhere you looked, the floors, the seats, the doors, every surface was being scrubbed and the smell of disinfectants hit you in every corridor.

It’s definitely a different city than it was a week ago. Business is grinding to a halt (in my industry, anyway) as more and more of the multinationals send their foreign staffs back home. Just today the US embassy put out a notice suggesting that US citizens consider foregoing trips to China until the situation has been improved. Concerts and shows throughout the city have been canceled, as no one wants to sit in close proximity to others. I was laughing a few weeks ago when I went to Singapore and saw several passengers on my plane wearing surgical masks. Now as I get ready to travel to south China I’m pretty sure I’ll be wearing one as well, at least on the plane.

I try not to use this site to whine about personal stuff (too much), but my shoulder is still a big issue in my life right now, and the doctor has ordered me to get an MRI tomorrow. He thinks when I fell I tore the rotator cuff of my right shoulder, which would require surgery. I wear a sling all the time now and still can’t lift up my right arm nearly two weeks after the big fall.

On a happier note, traffic to my site has tripled in recent weeks, soaring from 6 to 18 viewers, most of whom are sent here by google, thinking they’ll be able to find a recipe for Peking duck. Actually traffic is a bit better than that, and since I started posting about SARS there really was a big spike.

Traffic is sure to plunge again by the end of next week, when I start my 22-day holiday with my favorite person and in all likelihood blogging will come to a complete halt as we peruse South China. Then, immediately after the trip, I move to Singapore. It would be bad form to blog during my first few days at the new job, so the slowdown will most likely continue.

Singapore. It doesn’t quite seem real at the moment. I will be sad, in some ways, to leave Beijing, which I’ve come to enjoy a lot more as the weather’s improved, but I can’t deny that in most ways I feel relieved. In some ways, very relieved.

My big dilemma is this blog’s name. I’ve got a lot invested in the name “The Peking Duck,” but will it be appropriate after I leave China? What about “The Singapore Sparrow”? No, I don’t really think that works…. I’m open to any suggestions readers may have!

Gweilo Diaries has a humorous description of SARS-crazed Singapore. I hope it’s toned down by May 20, when I move there permanently.

In a dramatic turnaround, which I haven’t seen noted anywhere yet, the Central Government is acknowledging the existence of SARS throughout the country, its growing dangers and its geographical spread. This morning on CCTV, for the very first time, the announcers talked about the situation in a helpful and believable manner. No light-hearted sugar-coated testimonials from delighted tourists who love China “now that SARS is a thing of the past.”

Today the message was clear: SARS is spreading rapidly and the number of cases is rising. I was impressed, as it’s a 180-degree turn from their usual (non)”reporting.” I suspect that with the eyes of the world on the country, and with the presence of international investigators, there really was no choice if the government wanted to save even a thread of credibility.

Latest report from the American Chamber of Commerce here:

FROM THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION:

A reader (I believe she’s native Chinese and living in North America) wrote to me to point out that I may have a gross misunderstanding of the liberation of Tibet, as it’s referred to here. Earlier I had written, “Then again, maybe the Chinese do know more about liberating countries than we do. After all, they liberated Tibet, though, come to think of it, they didn’t call for the UN to step in and handle that liberation, now did they? And anyone who asked, “Liberated Tibet from who? Liberated Tibet from what? is rotting away in a Chinese jail….

The emailer wrote,

“How much you know of that region? Have you ever been there? I met many Americans or westerners who have strong opinion on this topic. But once we started discussion, I found they barely know anything about the issue except Dalai Lama and a general impression of how much tibetan people are suffering from suppression. They don’t know before 1956 (?), tibet had slavery system. Most tibetans were slaves or peasants, owned by monks and aristocrats. They don’t realize that dalai lama was indeed an emperor living in a huge palace, serving as both political and religious leader, enjoying all the luxuries (he had a car disassembled into parts in order to get into Lahsa.) I believe if Dalai never left tibet, he might not allow girls to go to school even up to today.

Fewer people know that as early as 400 yrs ago, then 5th dalai came to beijing to see the mandarin empiror to receive an official title and subsede to central government… I figured it’s getting nowhere to argue with people without these basic knowledge. I’ve been to tibet myself. I’m sure the freedom of religious pratice is limited there. But I also saw the tremendous change the area has embraced. Ask an ordinary tibetan, would he/she choose modernity or primative living condition, you may have very dispersed answers.

I admit I have no formal knowledge of this topic other than what I have learned in school and read in the papers. After reading this email I tried to do some research on the Internet, where I discovered there are two very different schools of thought on the topic, and I have no way of knowing, at least not yet, which is true.

This was a fascinating exercise, because it forced me to consider that fact that I had a very fixed notion about a topic, simply because I had been told that it was so. Maybe America’s propaganda is as bad as that of less free societies, at least in some ways…. I asked several of my colleagues and friends here about the subject, and was shocked to find that virtually all of them agreed with my emailer friend. They all said it was simply a matter of fact that the Tibetans’ lot was improved immeasurably and that it was an act of mercy.

I was shocked because this totally flies in the face of what I — and, I believe, nearly all Americans — know to be “true.” And I must admit that at this moment, I am inclined to say that at least maybe, possibly, we in the West are all under a vast misimpression when it comes to Tibet, and maybe, just maybe, the Dalai Lama is not the saintly, gentle creature who dared stand up to the wicked communists. Maybe.

Anyway, I am holding off any final judgment until I have a better grasp of the facts, but this really did get me thinking. I looked back at my education during the height of the Cold War and all the vile things we were taught about Red China and its partner in crime, The Evil Empire (most of which were grounded in fact), and I just have to wonder, were we duped, at least in this case?

Sorry to make so much about this, but it was like having cold water thrown on me. The crushing of freedom in Tibet — a liberation? Okay, I’ll let it go at that for now.

John Pomfret at the Washington Post again provides excellent coverage of the SARS travesty here in the People’s Republic. Be sure to check it out to see just how vulnerable some parts of this vast country are, and how irresponsible the Wise and Magnanimous Central Government can be when it comes to protecting its citizens. (Courtesy of Ole Eichhorn.)

As so many people say over here, “We love our country, but our country doesn’t love us.”

As the war began, members of the House of Representatives gave speech after speech praising our soldiers, and passed a resolution declaring their support for the troops. Then they voted to slash veterans’ benefits.

So begins Paul Krugman’s scathing column on the hypocrisies of the Republicans. His conclusions are scary. America doesn’t seem to be the country it was just a few years ago. While George Senior called for a kinder, gentler nation, it seems Junior’s America is meaner, more predatory and greedy — unabashedly so.

What that scene demonstrated was the belief of the Republican leadership that if it wraps itself in the flag, and denounces critics as unpatriotic, it can get away with just about anything. And the scary thing is that this belief may be justified. For the overwhelming political lesson of the last year is that war works — that is, it’s an excellent cover for the Republican Party’s domestic political agenda. In fact, war works in two ways. The public rallies around the flag, which means the President and his party; and the public’s attention is diverted from other issues.

This coming Saturday (April 19) I will be singing in a chorus at the Forbidden City concert hall. At last night’s rehearsal, the choir director told us that he was considering canceling the entire thing due to SARS, which has caused many multinationals to send their expat staffs packing. Nearly all concerts have been cancelled in Beijing, it appears, due to SARS fears. We discussed it and agreed that there would be no sense cancelling; there is no way to predict when the city will get back to “normal,” if ever. We will be discreetly offering surgical masks to any attendee who would like one. If you’ll be in Beijing and want to hear some amazing music let me know.

Yesterday afternoon I spoke with the CEO of a well-known Hong Kong company who told me that the city has in recent weeks become an utterly surreal place. It is virtually SARS City, and the media, he said, have made the situation far worse than it is. He cited reports in Fortune magazine and other international publications that “restaurants are empty” and “everyone on the street is wearing a face mask.” These are gross exagerrations, he said, and they are only helping to destroy the city’s economy unjustifiably. What is true, he said, is that the city’s anxiety level is being stretched to the limit. He described how prank emails about SARS disasters are circulating at a fever pitch, and at least one (on how Cathay Pacific was terminating most of its flights) was picked up by a local newspaper, increasing the general spirit of fear and misery.

So SARS is still alive and well here in Asia, no matter what the Chinese Minister of Health says, and it is top of mind with everyone I know, local or expat. The panic seems slowly to be shifting to a mood of grim resignation as people adjust to the fact that SARS may never be cured, and that it is something we may simply have to get used to.