Absurdity, Allegory and China

The NYT ran a story a few days ago – a mother-daughter banter across a dozen time zones – entitled Swine Flu Diary: Caught in a Beijing Dragnet by Sheryl Gay Stolberg (mom) and Olivia Robinson (daughter). It is an emotional piece that documents a parent’s worst nightmare: being half-a-world away as your child is forcibly held by a foreign government, in this case a hysterically ramped-up-for-viral-disaster China. Ms. Robinson, a student traveling on a language study trip, is fourteen (14) years old.

While I can well understand a parent’s anxiety – my daughter came to China when she was 15 and over the past decade we have experienced a few official incidents (one in a police station in Dawu in Golog, central Qinghai that could have gone either way at any moment, and if you have ever been to Dawu you will know what I mean. She was the victim of a crime, though the local police were doing their best to pin the blame on her) – I could not help but cringe as I read this. I am quite surprised this account made it onto the pages of the New York Times, though I could easily imagine it in a small town newspaper where a goodly number of readers might know either or both of the duo.

Ms. Stolberg qualifies herself “[a]s a White House correspondent and former science writer for The New York Times,” who has “a professional understanding of international relations and how epidemics spread,” before hopping in and sharing with us the shared ordeal. In what can only be seen as mind-numbing naivete, Stolberg relates:

She has clothes, camera, snacks, a deck of cards, Tylenol, an antibiotic for a nagging sinus infection, and a doctor’s note declaring her “not infectious and safe to travel.”
…
Hundreds of Americans suspected of carrying H1N1 have been quarantined in China this summer. We are determined: this is not going to happen to us.

A day into their trip the group is subjected to a one-day quarantine, which begins a cycle that drags on for nearly two weeks with Ms. Robinson eventually testing positive for H1N1, as well as recovering to continue her studies. As I write, Ms Robinson who was released from quarantine on July 28th is still in China, and, I assume, still learning the language.

I don’t even know where to begin with this. There has been no shortage of information attesting to the randomness and irrationality of China’s H1N1 quarantine policy. The only way to positively avoid being swept up is not to come to China. No one will say this, since no one wants “to hurt China’s feelings,” but the fact is if you want to keep yourself or a loved one out of a quarantine situation, don’t come to China. It really is that simple.

On June 19th the Embassy of the United States in Beijing’s website issued a travel alert with the following warning:

Current quarantine measures in China include placing arriving passengers who exhibit fever or flu-like symptoms into seven-day quarantine.  Although the proportion of arriving Americans being quarantined remains low, the random nature of the selection process increases the uncertainty surrounding travel to China.  The selection process focuses on those sitting in close proximity to another traveler exhibiting fever or flu-like symptoms or on those displaying an elevated temperature if arriving from an area where outbreaks of 2009-H1N1 have occurred.  We have reports of passengers arriving from areas where outbreaks have occurred (including the U.S. and Mexico) being placed in precautionary quarantine simply because they registered slightly elevated temperatures.

In some instances, children have been separated from their parents because either the parent or the child tested positive for 2009-H1N1 and was placed in quarantine for treatment.  This situation presents the possibility of Chinese medical personnel administering medications to minors without first having consulted their parents.

On July 14^th, the day Ms Robinson arrived in Beijing, the embassy issued another travel alert – their sixth message since the end of April dealing with the H1N1 – which included the following paragraph:

Although the overall percentage of Americans being quarantined remains low, the seemingly random nature of the selection process makes it almost impossible to predict when a traveler may be placed into quarantine. Travelers with even a slightly elevated body temperature risk being placed into hospital quarantine, while passengers sitting in close proximity to another traveler with fever or flu-like symptoms may be taken to a specially-designated hotel for a quarantine of approximately seven days, even if they show no symptoms themselves.

In other words, all bets are off. It is not too difficult to read between these mighty diplomatic lines. There is no protective bubble of American rectitude, reason or right-thinking that will allow you to pass Go if someone in a mask and rumpled lab coat decides you shouldn’t. Welcome to the brave new world where the US’s largest creditor is an authoritarian government that, like it or not, doesn’t see the world the way that you do. And, truth be known, they think you’re a lot worse off for not seeing it the same way they do.

You must also know that if you come here anything can happen, and you really might spend your vacation in a room with paint peeling off the walls. The State Department is not going to come straight out and tell you that, but that is, in fact, what they are saying. If you don’t believe me, ask Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans. He was a guest in a quarantine hotel. There may be no good reason for you to believe him either, but the fact is he was nabbed in Shanghai.

Do not expect to find anyone who is going to “give you a break,” “cut you some slack,” “bend the rules” for you or any of your loved ones. That’s not how things work around here, at least when it comes to this flu. As misinformed as China’s H1N1 policy is, there’s no way around it once you touch down in China. You can tell them how stupid it is, and they will remain unblinkingly and rigidly unmoved. Official China lost a good deal of face for their poor handling of the SARS crisis, and now what they see as hyper-vigilance in the face of viral disaster is their attempt to level the perception seesaw. That they are screaming into the wind doesn’t phase them. This is not about stopping the spread of the virus. It is all about being perceived as doing something, even if that something is useless.

But if you do come please don’t expect to find any Tamiflu. It is my understanding that all Tamiflu was rounded up by the government back in May. I know this, because I am one of the “pre-existing condition” folks, and I was onto trying to score some very early on. I used my medical connections, and that’s when I found that I was a few days too late. The government, I was told, had ordered that it all be turned over to them. And so it was. I expect to see a lively black market in useless, counterfeit Tamiflu develop – if it hasn’t already – once the general population realizes how vulnerable they really are, despite the government locking up whoever they think has been exposed. At some point in the very near future they will have to back off their ham-handed posturing position, but until they do, don’t expect to send your children here and have them somehow miraculously dodge the quarantine bullet.

By the end of her summer adventure I suspect that the young Ms. Robinson will have learned a lot more about China than just a little bit of language. And I also suspect that the lessons she learned in the quarantine rooms might serve her well in understanding more about who she very well may be dealing with in her future. I can only hope that her mother has also learned a little bit more about vagaries of international relations and the politics of epidemics, which, as we know, are epidemics of a wholly different stripe.