International human rights groups and health experts have criticised new laws that allow China to execute or imprison for life anyone who violates SARS quarantine and spreads the disease.
"It will be useless in fighting SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome]," said Mr Frank Lu, director of the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democracy in China.
"They didn't even go through debate in the National People's Congress to pass this law. This shows China is not a country ruled by law".
Health experts agreed the law was unnecessary and could bring negative consequences. People who for whatever reason had stayed away from hospitals or quarantine areas could be less willing to turn themselves in for fear of facing penalty, they said.
Chinese citizens who are suspected of having the disease and those who have come in contact with infected people or people who come from infected areas have been sought by police and other authorities for quarantine.
Many people are afraid of being put in quarantine centres or hospitals for fear of being lumped with SARS patients and catching the disease.
Authorities admitted this week that many infections occurred in hospitals in Beijing due to lack of preparedness and inadequate facilities.
SARS has hit China the hardest of all countries in the world, killing 271 and infecting 5,163 people.
Amnesty International said in a report last month that two-thirds of the more than 1,500 people executed around the world last year were killed in China.
AFP