Stunned by a deadly new disease that has killed more people in China than anywhere else in the world–more than 270 by mid-May–the nation’s Communist Party has mobilized millions in a “people’s war” against SARS that recalls the mass political campaigns favored by Mao Zedong. Taking a page from the same playbook used to crush “capitalist roaders,” democracy activists and the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, the party has activated a vast, hierarchical network of loyalists that penetrates every classroom, apartment building and workplace–and directed it against a new kind of enemy: a virus. A 30-year-old driver in Yunnan province says he’s terrified of how people have reacted to the government’s broad call to arms: “It reminds me of what I’ve heard about the Cultural Revolution.” People across the country are manning “fever checkpoints” and refusing to let strangers pass, scrubbing down cars and taxis, even imposing quarantines on friends and relatives with the slightest sniffle. Local officials have sealed off entire villages and euthanized countless pets. Last week Beijing threatened to execute anyone who intentionally spreads the disease.
To outsiders, the “war” looks like overkill. But China’s unorthodox approach to fighting SARS just might work. The pace of the epidemic has slowed significantly in recent weeks, with the government reporting fewer and fewer new infections daily. Meanwhile, in democratic rival Taiwan, the contagion appears only to be worsening. Which raises the question: is an authoritarian government better equipped to squash an epidemic than a democratic one?
Traditionally, political scientists argue that democracies are better than dictatorships at preventing disasters, be they famine, flood or pestilence. A free press, an active civil society and elections that hold officials accountable to the public all help ensure that governments prepare for the worst and act quickly when it comes. Indeed, it was the rigid, top-down nature of the Chinese political system, which for months treated SARS as a secret to be covered up, that allowed the virus to flourish. But this same obsession with control may now give China an advantage against the disease. “A highly authoritarian regime can enforce a lot of measures, particularly at the grass-roots level,” says Stephen Morse, director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness at Columbia University.
And the Chinese government has snapped people into action. In Hang-zhou, volunteers are disinfecting the city’s 953 bicycle rickshaws daily. In Shanghai, authorities are giving out cash rewards for those who rat out the neighbor with the bad cough. In Beijing, one neighborhood is raising thousands of yuan for families of doctors and nurses, hailed as “angels in white coats” in a SARS-inspired jingle that has become the theme song of the propaganda blitz. On a recent visit to Hebei province, World Health Organization investigators were floored by the drive to register and track every returning migrant from Beijing, a SARS hot spot. Volunteers in the villages were assigned to monitor 10 households each. “They have mobilized the entire society,” marvels WHO expert Alan Schnur. Another WHO investigator, James Maguire, described an entire town placed under quarantine after only a few residents displayed symptoms: “A whole village of 2,000 people was put into isolation for two weeks! It’s just incredible.”
Frightened Chinese seem to be going along with the crackdown despite their harsh memories of other mass movements, in part because they believe they’re now fighting a real public enemy. For people like Xu Aihui, director of the neighborhood committee in Yonganli, the campaign provides an adrenaline rush. Tall and athletic, the former college volleyball player glows when she talks about the battle against SARS. Recently, Xu boasts, her team of volunteers forced 4,000 families in 50 buildings to dispose of 100 truckloads of trash. “Some of the old grandpas and grandmas came outside as the trucks were being loaded and wanted to rescue their old pieces of furniture,” Xu says, smiling. “But we had issued a lot of propaganda toward the younger generation, so their sons and daughters persuaded them to cooperate.” Xu claims hardly any residents have complained about the neighborhood’s prevention measures, which include twice-daily temperature checks for all.
Other governments in Asia have fought the disease with less stringent measures. Singapore announced the first home-quarantine measures, putting electronic bracelets on violators. But the city-state’s officials were equally serious about their public-information campaign, holding detailed daily briefings to update citizens. Taiwan, on the other hand, has been struggling to enforce its quarantine orders. “When I was in Beijing, I felt more comfortable because if the government wants to do something, then they can do it,” says Edward Huang, a Taiwanese businessman under quarantine in Taipei. “Taiwan has become too democratic, too open, so a lot of things [the government] wants to do, it can’t.” The government is now installing videophones in quarantined homes, but Taipei’s Mayor Ma Ying-jeou admits there are limits. “Until and unless we lock them up, there’s no way to be sure,” says Ma. “But we’re not a fascist country; we can’t do that.”
Even in China the economic reforms of the last 20 years have left the party much weaker than it once was. No Chinese leader can command the masses the way Mao did. Hundreds of thousands fled Beijing during the May 1 holiday, despite the government’s pleas that they avoid travel. More important, the Chinese countryside–home to 70 percent of the population–is precisely where the government’s control is the weakest and the risks of a disastrous epidemic the greatest. “To control SARS in the 1960s would have been much easier,” says Wang Yuxia, a party secretary of a street committee in Beijing.
Nevertheless, most health experts are hopeful that China’s strategy will succeed in containing the disease over the next few weeks or months. Many worry whether the government can sustain such an intense campaign for much longer, especially if the disease makes a comeback this winter. And China’s leaders have their own fear: if they don’t rein in the virus, the next mass campaign might well be directed against them.
