This content analysis of western-led English-language media coverage of the Chinese and Vietnamese SARS outbreak, involving amonst others the Washington Post (USA), the Globe & Mail (Canada), The Times (UK), the Straits Times (Singapore) and the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), demonstrates that whilst western SARS news coverage on China represented the other in an unfavorable light, Vietnam was not depicted as the negative other, due to their different ways of addressing the SARS crisis.