Word: hu
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...problem isn't just the virus, which has traumatized at least two other cities: Beijing and Hong Kong. What's especially nerve-racking is the cover-up at the source, in the corridors of power in China. Hu Jintao, who became leader of China's Communist Party half a year ago, now has to manage the country's biggest internal political crisis since the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square. After Beijing's initial efforts to hide the severity of crisis, Hu will have to step nimbly to protect the party's authority--and his career...
...system had become. Gorbachev realized that "even if you wanted to be Stalin, you couldn't anymore," says Michael Mandelbaum of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Within months, the Soviet leader accelerated his perestroika and glasnost reforms, which speeded the collapse of Soviet communism. In China, Hu sacked the health minister and Beijing's mayor. But it still isn't clear whether he and other top officials truly understand that a free flow of information is critical to a healthy society, to free markets, to long-term prosperity. "The leadership wants the country to be an economic...
News of a widespread Shanghai cover-up would further devastate the credibility of the national government and perhaps threaten the political future of China's new President, Hu Jintao. Until its attempts to come clean last week on the situation in the capital, the Hu government's approach to dealing with SARS had been both craven and ineffectual. After the disease surfaced in China's southern Guangdong province in November, party leaders quashed media reports about its existence, fearing the public would stay home during the Chinese New Year holiday rather than spend money that could spur the economy...
Stung by the torrent of criticism of his government, Hu finally decided to act. He and Premier Wen Jiabao warned their satraps to report SARS cases factually or face punishment, and authorized a massive media campaign to educate the masses about the disease--an almost revolutionary policy shift for a leadership structure that feels more comfortable with obfuscation than openness. On Wednesday, Hu appointed Wu Yi, a tough-talking former Trade Minister, to take over responsibility for the government's fight against SARS. Some China watchers believe that the public clamor for transparency may create an opportunity for Hu...
...doesn't have much time. Some China watchers predict that former President Jiang Zemin, who continues to exert influence over the party, will try to shove Hu aside if the government fails to contain the epidemic and China's economy stumbles. There's little cause for optimism on either count. Citigroup economists have lowered the projected growth rate of China's economy this year from 7.6% to 6.5% as a result of the SARS scare. Meanwhile, the virus is picking up steam in the impoverished hinterlands, where public awareness of the risks of SARS is limited and hospitals lack...