Magnificent commentary piece in today’s Straits Times on the sins China committed in lying to its citizens about SARS.

Columnist Ching Cheong writes, “What sparked the crisis was an official circular issued to all Chinese media last October. This told state media to black out negative news so that the CCP 16th party congress in November could be convened successfully….The stark fact is that the blackout was carried out on orders from the very top for a clearly political purpose.” . She expresses deep skepticism that the Chinese leaders have learned from the debacle and sees them continuing their pattern of blaming others, as even today they are perpetuating a myth that somehow the US caused SARS intentionally to divert attention from the Iraq war. (Can’t they come up with something better than that?) How ironic, she says, that it took an article in a US publication, Time, to expose the CCP’s evils

I wish this story were available online. It is when I read pieces like this that I want to say to the young idealists dazzled by the myth (the lie) that China has changed, “Look — here is China doing exactly what it’s done since the days of Mao, trying to manipulate the public consciousness so that they (the government) remain utterly free of criticism or blame. The only real change has been cosmetic. You can watch CNN now in China (if you are one of the infinitesimal sliver of the population that can afford it), but you can also go to prison for making the slightest criticism of the government….”

Want to continue but have to run. Later.