Some of our readers will recall (a) China's dismal record of inaction and cover-up with SARS; (b) The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic that killed 20-50 million people; (c ) Winds' article about global democracy promotion as a global development policy; it pointed out the inherent and inevitable failings of planned/ authoritarian socieites, and specifically noted their inability to react to things like avian flu pandemics as a key example of what we were talking about.
It seems that the Chinese government is not being very cooperative or forthcoming about even admitting a problem.
When threats are so varied, can we just stand at our borders inspecting for nukes, terrorists, and bugs? No. Passive defenses, like fixed fortifications, are monuments to the stupidity of man. On so many fronts, we have to push our first line of defense into the sources of these threats.
So, when a forward defense against a pandemic falters on the paranoid secrecy of a closed communist state like China, what do we do?
UPDATE: More Chinese secrecy in the face of disease:
A total of 174 confirmed or suspected cases have been linked to the bacteria streptococcus suis in China's southwestern Sichuan province, where farmers who handled or butchered infected pigs have been sickened in dozens of villages and towns. Symptoms include nausea, fever, vomiting, and bleeding under the skin.
Sichuan authorities have ordered local journalists to stay away from locations where the disease surfaced, and told newspapers to instead carry stories as issued by the official Xinhua News Agency, including the headline, Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News reported.Calls to Sichuan's provincial government headquarters in Chengdu seeking confirmation of the media ban went unanswered.
Beijing was heavily criticized during its SARS outbreak for its reluctance to release information.
As the source for most of our flu viruses, China's refusal to admit outbreaks is a threat to us.
I wonder whether there has ever been a war fought to keep disease from spreading. Not that we could do that with China. But it is an interesting case. If a small nation was incubating terrible diseases through its failure to exercise the powers and responsibilities of a government, would we intervene to put their house in order? Would the UN authorize it?
All I'm saying is that this is another area where it would be awfully nice if China was a democracy and not the communist thug state it is (and no, having a form of state capitalism for its economic foundation doesn't erase the fact that the government is communist).
