A GIANT SIGNBOARD featuring a huge fist erected at a boulevard in Beijing declares: 'Sars will be conquered by our government under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.'
Laughable to an international observer, perhaps, but few Chinese citizens doubt the message being conveyed: bringing Sars under control is the job of the party, and the party will overcome.
And now that Hong Kong and Guangdong have had their World Health Organisation travel warning lifted, it appears only a matter of time before China's leadership declares the crisis over on the mainland. Indeed, the fact that many parts of the country remain under a WHO travel advisory does not seem to bother the senior leadership quite as much any more.
President Hu Jintao, for one, is confident enough to go ahead with plans to lead a delegation to four countries beginning tomorrow, his first trip abroad since taking over from Jiang Zemin in March.
Across the Taiwan Strait, the picture could hardly look worse. In modern, industrialised, democratic Taiwan, the image that has stuck in people's minds recently is that of a desperate nurse at a major hospital under quarantine, pulled back from the window as she tried to flee her Sars-infected ward.
The Sars outbreak continues to rage, in full view of the island's TV cameras.
Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, although trying hard to put on a brave face, must surely envy Mr Hu.
