Please lie less
China's response to the SARS epidemic is being hobbled by a culture of secrecy
PREVENTING and treating atypical pneumonia, Beijing's Communist Party chief, Liu Qi, told medical experts this week, are “important political tasks”. In party-speak, this means the leadership is more worried than it has previously liked to admit about the epidemic of a pneumonia-type ailment known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. But China's decision to be a bit more open about the problem is doing little to contain the damage.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Please lie less"
From the April 12th 2003 edition
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