Chinese Leadership's Political Jockeying During SARS

More on the Chinese leadership's behind-the-scenes maneuverings during the 2003 SARS crisis.

It was apparent then that information on SARS patients, especially those in military hospitals, were hard to come by, and even harder to verify. But what was less apparent was that such intransparencies were due to moves undertaken by Jiang Zemin (江泽民) and his associates.

According to Kenneth Liberthal, Jiang partisans held the top positions in both Guangdong (广东) province, where SARS initially appeared, and in the Ministry of Health. "In both places, they systematically underplayed the seriousness of the SARS crisis. Jiang also controlled the military and military hospitals even in the capital and refused to provide the information on their SARS patients that the civilian and international health authorities required." (Kenneth Liberthal, Governing China, From Revolution Through Reform)

The first purge of top officials apparently removed Jiang's protege Zhang Wenkang (张文康) as Minister of Health, but in order to strike a "factional balance", the purge did not remove the Guangdong provincial leader. Rather, the new mayor of Beijing, a Hu Jintao (胡锦涛) supporter, was fired. Why? Though Liberthal did not explain, I guess it has to do with the fact that there were also a large number of SARS cases in Beijing. But with an even higher number of SARS cases in Guangdong, surely the first one to be fired should be the Guangdong leader.

But nevertheless, according to Liberthal, both Hu and Wen Jiabao (温家宝) seized on the epidemic to place key people who were proteges of former Premier Zhu Rongji (朱镕基) in charge of anti-epidemic efforts, and to nudge Jiang supporters into the background.

How credible are these accounts? Only God knows. But I guess the lack of clear answers is what makes China-watching so interesting.