ELISABETH ROSENTHAL: China Yields Data on Mystery Illness Reluctantly

In early March, when a new mystery illness started hopscotching around the globe, Chinese health officials looked on in silence, as if to say, "This has nothing to do with us."

At that point, China was already four months into an outbreak that officials later acknowledged was the same disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Yet they insisted that the situation was fully under control, shared none of their data and declined to join international investigations....once again, China's penchant for burying bad news and manipulating statistics for political ends has increased human suffering. In the late 1950's and early 60's, historians estimate, tens of millions of farmers starved in the aftermath of Mao Zedong's disastrous experiment in collectivized agriculture during the Great Leap Forward. The policy continued unchecked because local officials, eager to please their superiors in Beijing, reported only bumper harvests.Today, SARS has presented these same kinds of officials with a similar choice � to save people or save face with their bosses � and until recently they chose the latter....many Chinese have been disappointed in a statistical cover-up that seems more suited to the Mao-era China of three decades ago.

Then near the end, she points out:

In the economic sphere, a result is that investing in China is a risky business. As a health matter, poor statistics mean that serious unreported public needs are often ignored.

And yet they're criticizing the US for restrictions on press freedom (below). Meanwhile, LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN and ERIK ECKHOLM: China Defends Actions in Battling Contagious Illness

Some residents of Hong Kong, where the virus is now fulminating and schools have been shut down, blame Beijing for not sharing information about the brewing epidemic more quickly, possibly allowing stronger countermeasures early on.

Do they really mean fulminating?