China's new regime, centering on State President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao and labeled the fourth generation of the ruling echelon, has gotten off the ground.
However, they immediately faced difficulties as they were exposed to deep distrust and severe criticism that both at the state and local government level China was late in implementing follow-up measures to deal with SARS.
The Guangdong provincial government publicly released SARS information three months after the disease broke out in their region. The delayed information disclosure contributed to the spread of the disease worldwide.
A big reshuffle of the leadership was underway, so that there could have been a power vacuum that could account for their failure to address the issue.
Nonetheless, one cannot deny that there was an old tradition that governments inform the public of things that are only favorable to themselves.
Bureaucrats both at the central and local levels seek only career advancement, so they may defend themselves by either delaying or hiding information disadvantageous to themselves while they are in office.
The two new leaders share a common touch to some extent as they spent their youthful days in the impoverished area of China's west.
Hu's motto is that leaders use power for the benefit of the public, develop an attachment for the people and represent their interests on their behalf. This is what they call ''The new principles of the People,'' which he advocated as soon as he came to power. He has also proposed the idea of ruling by law which is intended to criticize the privileged class.
He also has begun carrying out media reform, calling for media coverage based on facts and for more focus on average people and their life in general.
While newspapers and TV programs deal much less than previously with politically oriented stories, they provide much more coverage of information on daily life and of local news and this attracts the attention of average people.
The new leadership also revealed their ideal of '' politics for the people'' in dealing with SARS, although they were slow in doing so.
They established an emergency task force whose head is President Hu and accepted a group of World Health Organization experts to investigate the current status of the SARS contagion in China. They provided disease-related information to the group.
They started exchanging information and academic research results with experts and organizations in other countries and regions, including Hong Kong and Taiwan.
They also made it clear that they will investigate thoroughly as crimes if local governments and ministries hide the number of SARS patients or are slow to take action in dealing with the problem.
TV news programs have started picking up SARS as their top news story since April. Two newspapers publicly criticized the government for failing to take prompt action. Premier Wen hosted a meeting of senior officials from across the nation on April 13 in order to respond to the disease problem.
It was announced on April 20 that Health Minister Zhang Wenkang and Beijing Mayor Meng Xuenong were dismissed. The announcement also included a large upward revision of the statistics regarding the number of SARS patients.
Yet, it is not easy to predict whether the leadership can win back the trust of the people that has been now severely undermined. It is necessary to strengthen measures to combat the new virus. However, above all, it is very important to change the mentality of bureaucrats and reform the political tradition as they have a deep-seated tendency to resist prompt and timely action in times of emergency.
It is said that the new leadership is now studying ways to build a framework for quick reporting and prevention as well as prompt response when emergency cases like SARS occur. We would like to keep a close eye on their efforts.
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SARS Tests Leadership's Ability To Solve Problems