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After Fumbling by Beijing, Concern Over Virus Rises
By PETER WONACOTT
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
BEIJING -- China's belated candor about the spread of a lethal strain of pneumonia has been rewarded with the exact response it hoped to avoid: panic.
The disclosure that the number of people with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, is far higher than previously admitted caused a palpable mood swing Monday in the nation's capital and in other cities. Stock markets in Shenzhen and Shanghai fell on SARS fears.
A nationwide graduate school exam was canceled, with the Ministry of Education citing the need to preserve "safety and stability" at China's universities. At the Jian Hypermarket drugstore in eastern Beijing, shoppers scooped up 6,000 surgical masks in the morning alone, as crowds clamored in front of clerks who ripped open fresh boxes.
"There is a feeling of terror," said Zhou Zhiliang, wearing a blue suit and sporting a fresh surgical mask. The 24-year-old salesman said he felt so uneasy talking to his customers he trudged across town on his lunch hour to find a store with masks still available.
Never mind that only 448 out of 13 million people in this city have been infected with SARS. Or that less than 5% of the patients are reported to die from the disease. The government's nationally televised mea culpa Sunday for fumbling a public-health crisis -- and underreporting by nearly tenfold the number of SARS patients in Beijing -- has set people on edge.
Monday, Chinese health authorities reported that total SARS fatalities in China rose to 86 while the total number of cases nationwide climbed to 1,959, the World Health Organization said. The new figures raise the death toll in Beijing to 20.
The public reaction shows how Beijing lost a delicate balance in its effort to manage SARS. As more cases became known in southern Guangdong and Beijing, officials couched the release of information with assurances that the outbreak was under control. But learning the degree to which they had been misled startled many people -- even those who maintained low standards for government transparency.
"SARS? I am thinking of nothing else now," grumbles 66-year-old Shen Zongxing, coming out of a market with an armful of groceries and an herbal medicine prescription to treat the disease. As Mr. Shen loaded his bicycle up with cooking oil, bread and milk to start a self-imposed quarantine, he blasted Beijing city officials for concealing the outbreak. "They've done nothing." But the retired engineer praised central government leaders, such as Premier Wen Jiabao, who last week threatened to punish those who covered up the SARS cases. "Wen Jiabao went to schools and showed his concern to students. It was touching," Mr. Shen said.
Still, such sentiments suggest that the government's strategy to pin the blame on certain officials may pay off. While a clearer picture of SARS in China is heightening anxiety on the streets, it isn't prompting calls for sweeping political change, or for an overhaul of the top leadership. Public ire has focused on lower-level officials, and not those who oversaw their work.
In a move to assuage such anger, China's health minister was stripped of his party post. And Chinese newspapers reported Monday that Wang Qishan, a former banker and current Communist Party Secretary of Hainan province, would replace Beijing's dismissed Mayor Meng Xuenong. Mr. Wang has been in charge of restoring battered confidence before. In the late 1990s, as vice governor of Guangdong, Mr. Wang helped unwind billions of dollars of debt owed to foreign creditors by the province's bankrupt investment arm, Guangdong International Trust & Investment Corp.
But his task in rebuilding government credibility could prove tougher these days, as more Chinese turn to the Internet and satellite television in a backlash against the state-controlled media. Strange rumors -- such as high death tolls at secret hospitals or speculation that SARS is a biochemical weapon unloosed by the U.S. and Taiwan -- have even offered solace to some.
"I'd rather believe the worst, so at least I can prepare mentally," said an assistant professor at the People's University in Beijing. "The most frightening thing has been the optimistic tone of the state media." In the climate of uncertainty, other cities are radiating nervousness.
In Shanghai, callers to the city's official SARS hotline were greeted with a busy tone most of the day. As in Beijing, thick surgical masks were a hot item. The city has acknowledged only two SARS patients out of 16 million people, including migrant workers.
Investors are skittish, too. After the government shortened a weeklong May holiday to three days to stem the spread of SARS, Chinese investors sold aviation and travel stocks. But buyers bid up pharmaceutical stocks, with an analyst saying a 5% average price rise was fueled by blind hope that a Chinese drug company may discover what has eluded the global medical community: a cure for SARS.
Also weighing on the mood of investors is the expectation that the government is now less likely to hide bad news, suggesting more is on the way. Says Liu Weijin, analyst in Shenzhen at Guosen Securities: "It would be terrible if other places revised their figures higher, like what happened in Beijing."
Write to Peter Wonacott at peter.wonacott@wsj.com.
Updated April 22, 2003
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