swine flu stupidity strikes China

According to James Fallows, Mexican citizens who happen to be in Beijing are being rounded up and detained in hospitals and hotels:

As international flights arrive in Beijing, from any destination, passengers are being asked to show their passports before the plane comes to the terminal. Those with Mexican passports are not allowed to enter the city. They have been taken to a hotel for quarantine and are still there. Some 40 to 50 people are now being detained in this way. To be clear, this is not being applied to people who've recently been to Mexico, or who are showing signs of disease, or who have been exposed in some other way. It has been purely a matter of whether they are Mexican citizens.

There has also apparently been at least one similar case in Guangzhou.

Comments

[fernanda]

hey, I'm mexican and I've been in china for more than six months, I will call my embassy, because I don't want this happen to me or any other guys, mexican or other nationality

[figaro]

I am a native chinese, I absolutly support what the China gov did, it show they greatest responsible to the citzens health, no matter foreigners or natives.

u say u don't want this happen to you guy,
yes ,We don't want this shit disaster happen to 1.3 billion chinese people.

[upyernoz]

couldn't this be a bit of retaliation for how the west dealt with china during the SARS scare?

[Alex]

What SARS scare? There was a serious outbreak of it that did things like "closing hospitals in Canada by infecting all the staff".

[jamie]

I don't think it's got anything to do with the West. I think the responsible persons have been told that on no account must swine flu take root in China or they're in deep shit. Bear in mind what happened to Zheng Xiaoyu. On the other hand they can do whatever's in their power to stop it.