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Party bickering hampers SARS fight
By Willy Wo-Lap Lam, CNN Senior China Analyst
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- "China is publicizing only half the SARS figures because just half the Politburo is fighting the epidemic," so goes a saying in Beijing's political circles. The authorities have since April 20 -- when the health minister and Beijing mayor were fired for dereliction of duty -- made notable improvement in disclosing statistics about the severity of the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in China. However, China's battle against the virus is being hampered by factional strife with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This is despite the fact that, under a slogan coined by former president Jiang Zemin, the entire nation should "be of one heart [so that] the masses' determination will be as strong as a rampart." Emblematic of the factional problem, however, is precisely why a largely retired leader can still dictate the theme for fighting what Chinese commentators call the "epidemic of the century." Until a crucial CCP Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) meeting on April 28, the rallying cry was that all Chinese should battle SARS "under the leadership of the party central [authorities] with comrade Hu Jintao as its core." Yet it seems obvious that Jiang, as well as members of his powerful Shanghai Faction, was not happy with the pre-eminence given to President Hu, who is also CCP General Secretary. Since the SARS outbreak, it has been Hu and his ally, Premier Wen Jiabao, who have dominated the political landscape with stern calls on cadres to do their utmost to snuff out the disease. Hu and Wen also broke with party tradition when they urged truthful reporting of SARS figures -- as well as the punishment of officials found to have covered up the facts or fumbled in public health measures. 'Three Represents'
But at the PSC conclave, the decision was made that the anti-SARS crusade should be waged under the guidance of the "Theory of the Three Represents." The theory, a brainchild of Jiang's, says that the CCP should represent the foremost productivity, the most advanced culture, and the interests of the masses. Very few officials and intellectuals in Beijing can make out the relevance of the Three Represents Theory to the anti-SARS campaign. Since late April, senior officials as well as the state media have significantly cut down their reference to combating SARS under Hu's leadership. By the same token, the Three Represents Theory, which most people had forgotten not long after it was enshrined in the CCP Constitution last November, has made a comeback. For example, Jiang's top protege, Vice-President Zeng Qinghong, has reiterated that fighting SARS is a "concrete action in implementing the important Theory of the Three Represents." Another decision made at the meeting of the PSC, which is still dominated by Jiang affiliates, is that the party and government should "use one hand to handle the priority of combating SARS, and use the other hand to implement the core task of economic construction." Earlier, Premier Wen had pointed out the nation should focus most of its energy and resources on eradicating SARS first -- and then pick up the threads of economic development after the epidemic is over. As Wen put it graphically in a mid-April talk: "Once the verdant mountain is preserved, there is no fear that we'll run out of firewood." What Chinese party scholars have called "the struggle between the two lines" means that party factions and power blocs loyal to Jiang have been less than enthusiastic in supporting the Hu-Wen team's anti-SARS efforts. One notable example is the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which is still headed by the 73-year-old ex-president. Army role
It was not until the same day of the pivotal PSC meeting that the PLA made its first significant contribution to combating SARS. As the official Xinhua news agency reported on April 28, the PLA had sent 1,200 doctors and nurses to the new SARS hospital outside Beijing "under the imprimatur of Central Military Commission Chairman Jiang Zemin." Diplomatic analysts in Beijing have pointed out it is strange that the top brass had kept mum for more than five months after the disease's outbreak. It was only in the past week that senior officers such as the two CMC vice-chairmen, Generals Guo Boxiong and Cao Gangchuan, started making SARS-related inspections trips. By contrast, the army played an early -- and pivotal -- role in helping civilian authorities tackle the 1998 floods, to which SARS has often been compared in the Chinese media. Similarly, two important organs often used to mobilize the masses -- the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference -- have been uncharacteristically quiet regarding the epidemic. It is perhaps not a coincidence that the chairmen of these two bodies, respectively Wu Bangguo and Jia Qinglin, are long-standing Jiang cronies. Factional dynamics is also the reason behind the Hu-Wen team's failure to punish a number of cadres who seem to be guilty of SARS-related misdemeanors. Xinhua reported last Thursday that 120-odd officials in 15 provinces and directly administered cities had been penalized for shoddy performance in containing the disease. However, cadres in southern Guangdong Province, where SARS broke out last November, have apparently been spared censure. A glaring example is Politburo member and Guangdong Party Secretary Zhang Dejiang, who played a substantial role in imposing a news blackout on the epidemic. It is understood that Zhang and his aides had in February and March given instructions to the local media to hush up the SARS onslaught. The unrepentant attitude of Guangdong cadres was evident when Hong Kong reporters last Thursday asked Governor Huang Huahua, who is Zhang's deputy in the CCP hierarchy, whether any of his colleagues needed to take the rap for SARS. "We have done a fine job," Huang said, adding there was "no question" of Guangdong officials having to shoulder any responsibility. This is despite reports in Hong Kong and Western media that Guangdong officials have still not cleaned up restaurants where cooks and workers live side by side with animals and fowls. Epidemiologists have suspected that the coronavirus behind SARS – commonly found in animals – first made the "jump" to humans in the unhygienic eateries in the province. Governor Huang even disputed the fact that his province was the "birthplace" of the pandemic. He cited a report in a Chinese-run Hong Kong paper earlier this month, which claimed that the first SARS cases were found in the U.S. in February 2002. Party sources in Beijing say a key reason why Guangdong officials have remained beyond reproach is that party boss Zhang is a Jiang protege and past-master in making propaganda about the Three Represents Theory.
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