In the clearest sign yet of how seriously China is taking the swine flu outbreak, President Hu Jintao convened a meeting on Thursday morning of the Standing Committee of the Politburo — the nine men who run China — that was immediately announced.
It is rare for China’s authorities to disclose any meeting of the standing committee, and particularly to do so as soon as the meeting ended.
“I don’t know if it has ever occurred before — it is really, really unusual,” said Cheng Li, the director of the China Center at the Brookings Institution.
After struggling to cope six years ago with an outbreak of SARS, the Chinese leadership is taking a much more visible approach now to swine flu.
Premier Wen Jiabao held a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss preparations for the disease and call for an interagency effort to address it. President Hu announced a few hours later that China was stepping up its inspection and quarantine procedures for people and imports of pigs and pork products.
And on Wednesday, Vice Premier Li Keqiang toured the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing and called for manufacturers to produce more face masks, sterilization chemicals and flu medicines.
East Asia, Central Asia and South Asia have not yet had a laboratory-confirmed case of swine flu, although suspected cases are being tested, notably in South Korea and Hong Kong.
But flu experts predict that the disease will arrive in the region soon, if it has not already.
I hope the transparency extends to announcing H5N1 outbreaks as well.
