21th P-Mate Report from PTSL Shanghai (July 1, 2003)

SARS Nightmare

The past spring could be described as a nightmare for the Chinese people and for people around Southeast Asia as well.

The national-wide panic brought about by SARS epidemic came in the evening of April 20, when the central government announced the firing of some senior Beijing officials for their failure to contain the disease, the shortening of the week-long May Day Holiday, and a series of precautious measures. Just overnight, all household products related to disinfection and sterilization was out of stock, and in Beijing, even the shelves of the supermarket became empty because people started to stock daily necessities so as to avoid outdoor purchasing.

As Polyplastics employees, we are luckily enough that we all work for a company who really means it by saying "Employee is the essential assets of the company". At the very time when never had we felt the fragility of human being in face of the SARS threat, the continuous support from PPC and the contingent policies implemented by PTSL greatly eased the employees' concerns and well protected the employees from being contracted by the disease.

Thanks to the central government's powerful enforcement of series of measures, the disease is now under real control, even though this could be a bit earlier. Nightmare eventually passed over, both the government and the individual did learn a lesson by experiencing it. Especially at a time when China's rapid economic development caught the eyeballs of the world, we should spend some more time in thinking over transparency in news reporting, efficient response to public health crisis, anti-bureaucracy, family life, environment protection, bad habit abandon, and etc.

Attached please find the photos to remind you of what happened in this special spring.