May 4, 2003 Sunday

Section: Ideas; Pg. H2; Editorial

The Chinese government knew about severe acute respiratory syndrome, otherwise known as SARS, last November when the mysterious virus infected thousands in Guangdong Province. Yet the notoriously secretive regime kept mum.

Even after the deadly disease spread to Beijing, the government denied the rampaging epidemic by hiding SARS cases from the World Health Organization. SARS patients were removed from hospitals and driven around in ambulances to avoid WHO scrutiny.

But with the ferocious virus spreading rapidly in China and globally, the subterfuge has ended. More than 5,400 people in 20 countries are suffering from SARS, including eight suspected cases in Raleigh. Now Chinese officials are coming clean.

The SARS epidemic may have taught Chinese officials a belated lesson about openness. The regime has paid steep economic and political prices for withholding information. Eager to be a major player on the world stage, China's credibility has been especially tarnished. It is scheduled to host the Summer Olympics in 2008 and the Women's World Cup soccer playoffs in September, but foreigners are rightly questioning China's trustworthiness.

SARS' economic effects on China are also massive. Foreign tourism, a multibillion dollar industry, has plummeted. Foreign investors, who pour $52 billion into China's economy, refuse to travel there to negotiate contracts. In Beijing, movie theaters and public places are closed by government edict, sending the domestic economy into the doldrums.

China's formerly secure leadership even looks a bit shaky. Anger among Chinese is rising over the government's cover-up; riots are erupting in some rural cities over SARS-related issues.

America, so far, has been spared from a widespread outbreak. But fear of the disease now outweighs fear of smallpox and anthrax, according to a Harvard School of Public Health survey. A vast majority of Americans surveyed support strict quarantine. If the Chinese government had taken this step early on, the SARS fallout in China and the world could have been controlled.