bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

Zhuang Pinghui

Beijing businessman Wu Yong can still smell the disinfectant in the air as he casts his mind back to spring 10 years ago, when an unknown and deadly new disease held the capital and the country in its grip.
The driver, conductor and a handful of passengers on a bus for his daily commute all wore masks. The streets were empty bar a few cars and even the city's busiest shopping street, Wangfujing, was deserted.
"In panic, we bought masks, vinegar and banlangen [a traditional Chinese cold medicine]. Everyone would flinch when someone coughed or sneezed," said Wu, now 35. "It was a very scary and strange time of my life."
The disease, later identified as severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) didn't just leave its mark on ordinary citizens like Wu. From the first diagnosis in November 2002 until the World Health Organisation declared China Sars-free on May 19, 2004, the disease infected 5,237 people on the mainland, of whom 329 died. It was a major public health crisis that had an impact well beyond the health sector.
"Sars bears landmark significance not only for economic development but for government reform. It has triggered a series of major policy changes," Premier Wen Jiabao wrote in the February 1 issue of the Communist Party journal Seeking the Truth.
"The crisis exposed all the defects in the political system," said Professor Hu Angang of Tsinghua University's school of public policy and management. "It turned out to be the best teacher for the government on how not to repeat those mistakes."
The first Sars case involved a farmer from Foshan , Guangdong, who was identified days after President Hu Jintao and Wen were promoted to head the party at a national party congress. But they were not due to take over their formal government roles until March the next year and heads of government at all levels were also awaiting a reshuffle.
Such uncertainty meant it was the worst possible time for a major public health crisis to emerge. The subsequent slow response from the central government, which was widely criticised as a cover-up, enabled the virus to cross the border into Hong Kong and spread to the world at large.
"The focus on the power reshuffle led to a vacuum in government administration during the initial stage of the crisis," Hu Angang said. "The government's lack of ability to handle a crisis was exposed."
In February 2003, Guangdong for the first time announced the deaths of five people and 305 cases of the flu-like disease. At the end of March, Beijing was listed as an "affected area" by WHO.
Hu and his team at Tsinghua University wrote a report in early April to the State Council describing the crisis as benign, arguing that it would not rock the political foundations of the county or stop the momentum of economic growth.
The State Council did not set up a national-level contingency task force to deal with Sars until late April.
Hu and other academics were critical of the fact that there were no government agencies to deal specifically with health contingencies and no law to provide a legal basis for handling emergencies.
In July 2003 the State Council's general office put together a task force to start drafting the government's overall contingency plans for public crises. The first state-level plan was published in January 2006 and covered general principles for handling natural disasters, industrial and traffic accidents, public health problems and terrorist attacks. By the following year, tens of thousands of contingency plans had been issued by government departments at all levels.
The State Council also established a permanent emergency response office reporting directly to the cabinet in 2006, and the Emergency Response Law was passed the following year.
"One major impact of Sars is that responding to emergencies has become a regular function of government, which is now much better at dealing with crises," Hu said.
He cited the central government's response to the freak snow and ice storms that brought southern provinces to a standstill during the Lunar New Year peak travel period in 2008, and the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake that struck on May 12 the same year and killed 87,449 people.
Five hours after the quake struck, Wen stood among shattered buildings, consoling victims and encouraging rescuers.
"You see how the government learned to skilfully handle crises and senior officials tried to build a caring image," said Chen Gang , an associate professor at Wuhan University's School of Political Science and Public Administration.
The flow of information became smoother and transparency was recognised as a powerful tool that allowed the government to seize the initiative and to get disasters under control.
"What we learned from Sars is that transparency has a vital impact on whether a crisis is properly handled," said Mao Qunan , the Ministry of Health spokesman who gave daily updates on the Sars epidemic from April 2003. "Any delay in the release of information has a negative influence."
Hu said: "Sars started a revolution in transparency."
In 2007, Beijing passed the Release of Government Information Ordinance, a breakthrough for access to information.
Beijing's initial failure to admit the true extent of the Sars outbreak was roundly criticised by overseas governments and WHO. It took two months - after devastating Sars outbreaks in Hong Kong, Singapore, Hanoi and Toronto - for Beijing to allow WHO epidemiologists to enter Guangdong on April 3 to assess the situation there.
"There were doubts about 'interference in China's internal affairs' back then," said Chen. "Since then, the Chinese government has established good working ties with international organisations, as demonstrated during the Sichuan earthquake when international rescue teams and charities were allowed quick access to the disaster sites for rescue operations.
Chen said the Sars crisis also triggered moves to hold officials accountable for their mistakes - although the accountability system remains full of flaws.
In April 2003, health minister Zhang Wenkang and Beijing mayor Meng Xuenong were both sacked over their handling of the outbreak, the first ministerial-level officials on the mainland to be fired for incompetence. Since that time, heads have rolled more frequently at all levels of government, including a party secretary in Shijiazhuang , Hebei province over the melamine-tainted-baby-formula scandal.
"You see more and more officials being made to take responsibility not only for the usual criminal offences of living a decadent lifestyle, but for political reasons," Chen said. "Some do not appear to have committed any obvious wrongdoing, and their sackings appear more to be gestures of bowing to public pressure."
Another flaw in the accountability system is that officials sacked from one post have often been able to make a quiet comeback in another.
Following his departure from Beijing, Meng was quietly made deputy director of the South-North Water Transfer Project before becoming governor of Shanxi province. He served for less than a year before being forced to resign in September 2008 after mishandling a deadly mudslide in Xiangfen .
Zhang was made a vice-chairman of a government-linked foundation, where he served until his retirement.
The most noticeable legacy of Sars, though, has been the upgrading of the county's public health system.
"The Sars crisis provided an enormous boost to the development of China's public health system," said Feng Zijian, director of the emergency office of the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
From the end of 2003 until 2006, the central government injected 25.7 billion yuan (HK$32 billion) to upgrade facilities for public health emergencies and hospitals for infectious disease.
By 2006 the Ministry of Health had announced that a disease prevention and control system was basically established and that an infectious disease reporting system covered more than 95 per cent of counties.
 


How the Sars outbreak changed mainland China

Professor Hu Angang

Travellers wear masks waiting at a railway station in Beijing. Photo: Reuters

Disinfection of a plane in Beijing during the Sars crisis. Photo: Reuters

News

China

In the first of a series marking 10 years since the outbreak, experts say the crisis forced major policy changes to respond better to emergencies


Beijing businessman Wu Yong can still smell the disinfectant in the air as he casts his mind back to spring 10 years ago, when an unknown and deadly new disease held the capital and the country in its grip. The driver, conductor and a handful of passengers on a bus for his daily commute all wore masks. The streets were empty bar a few cars and even the city's busiest shopping street, Wangfujing, was deserted.
