The currency is plummeting. The streets are baron. The tour busses are parked and the schools are closed. 

If this were 2003, we would be referring to China. However, in lieu of the widespread pandemic that swine flu has now become, we are of course, documenting the goings-on in Mexico. 

There is a reason China, on the other hand, hasn’t documented a single case of swine flu yet. Not to say one, two, or thirty won’t eventually slip by, but Beijing has swept in to action against swine flu in a dramatic contrast to their policy of denial a mere six years ago.

“Precaution”  was the one-word headline of China Daily newspaper yesterday. And rightly so. As cases of the disease begin to show up on an international scale, the onus falls on governments to encourage precaution and deliver efficient information quickly. China has made it a point to do so. 

President Hu Jintao ordered the government to step up efforts to keep the virus from entering China and to control any possible outbreak to “ensure the  people’s health and safety”. Premier Wen Jiabao weighed in as well, declaring how swiftly and transparently they would report on any flu outbreak in the country with a population of 1.3 billion. There have been cases reported already, but those were proven to be false.

Because of its mammoth population, and the 450 pigs raised in China, half the global total, China is viewed at high-risk. The flu could have devastating effects there.

In its initiative of transparency, China has learnt a valuable lesson from past precedents.

The government’s willingness to report even suspected cases of swine flu stands in stark contrast to six years prior, when Chinese officials were accused of abetting the spread of SARS by initially going so far as to denying its existence.

Political risk in investment doesn’t usually cover how a government responds to disease, but it should. A new age of healthcare transparency has apparently dawned on China, and could be, should its initiative continue its success, one step towards greater transparency in the halls of government in all aspects - a more market-friendly China with policies open to scrutiny.