SEOUL -- The leaders of the Chinese Communist Party want the world to believe that the government they control is fit to be accepted as a full-fledged mature member of the global community. But is it? There have to be some doubts.
Like all communist parties, the CCP has a few problems with reality. And people suffer because of it. At the moment there are people around the world sick and dying of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. They are ill because last year the CCP refused to accept that the disease was a problem and that it did not know how to contain it. It refused to call in international experts to help identify and contain the disease.
The Chinese government, in a fruitless attempt to lessen the economic consequences of the disease, is still playing down its significance, although it has finally called in World Health Organization experts. Reports on the disease and its effects are so low-key in the Chinese media that many people in China are not even aware that there is a problem. Some who are aware have been thrown in prison for posting the truth on the Internet.