Via Randy, an article that talks about why it might have been the Chinese people, not the Chinese government, that kept SARS a secret initially.

The Chinese official put it this way: “we are having a terrible time getting people to see doctors, even for routine physical checkups. And this is because of an event that took place back in the late 1940s, following Mao’s revolution. At that time, the government promised to eradicate venereal disease in China. And it did. Everyone was forced to undergo an examination by a certified doctor. And anyone with venereal disease was executed. Ever since, most Chinese stayed far away from medical doctors.”

Interesting supposition, but of course for all my love of things of the Far East, my knowledge of the politics of the area is far to limited to offer up any real thoughts on it.

If this is true, then it's still the Chinese Governments fault for the spread of SARS in China.

If they told everyone to go see a Doctor in the wake of the Revolution and killed the sick, and now the sick ain't going to the Doctor, it's still the fault of the party.

"So the current regime, which would like to improve the health of the population, thought that it might be possible to get the people to a doctor if that doctor were clearly separate from the government. Indeed, as far removed from Chinese officialdom as one could imagine: an American doctor in an American clinic that guaranteed utter privacy."

The one thing that keeps me from getting a degree it polisci or history is my utter and abject hate of Marxist-Leninism and Maoism. In college I'll have a problem in dealing with the Marxist-Leninist and the Maoist.

It's not just the government, but the culture as well. In fact, mostly culture. Many Chinese people would rather live in denial of a common problem than actually face it. Beyond that, there is an utter lack of understanding of the concept behind the quarantine in Chinese society. The majority of Chinese people are addicted to human chaos, and their gregarious nature is irrepressible. It has less to do with communism vs. democracy than cultural differences. This epidemic is showing just how Chinese Taiwan really is, I'm afraid. I'm getting really sick of all the politicians here crowing about how China's to blame, etc., when they should be concentrating on the problem at hand, which is enforcing quarantines.