As soon as I heard the story (which I at first hoped was rumor) about the Chinese government’s evil and conscious decision to quash the news of SARS I sent out a rash of emails to my fellow bloggers seeking verification. I just heard from my colleagues at The Gweilo Diaries and China Weblog and The Flying Chair — and they say the cited article is indeed for real. (Naturally, it’s blocked to anyone in China lest we know the danger and decide to protect ourselves).

This is sickening, the most appalling example of crisis mismanagement, political bungling and criminal stupidity I have ever seen. To hell with them, every last one of the lying, self-obsessed bastards.

UPDATE: Looking at this now, I think it may come off as melodramatic and an over-reaction. But I am really pissed. If you saw them dishing it out this morning on CCTV-9 — they interviewed all these foreigners and natives reading what had to have been spoon-fed BS along the lines of, “It is wonderful that there is no longer any risk of SARS, and people are visiting and shopping and sightseeing in record numbers.” I am not kidding. It’s one canard after another. This government is a total hoax.

I emailed one of my blog buddies and asked whether he thought the government here could really be so invidious, to which he replied, “As for the Chinese government being invidious, I dunno, any government that calls the massacre of 3,000 student protesters an ‘incident’ is not exactly in my good book, y’know?” He’s got a point, hasn’t he?