Given they have a land border that is 22,000 km long and a sea border of 14,500 km this would appear to be a big job. Our land borders with Canada (including Alaska) are about 9000 km and Mexico 3100 km. Our coastline is about 20,000 km. I think it's clear we should outsource our border control problems with Mexico to the Chinese. If they can shut a 22,000 km border, they should have no trouble in managing our puny 3100 km border with Mexico.
http://search.muzi.com/news/ll/english/1384752.shtml
[LatelineNews 2005-10-22] HONG KONG - China will close its borders if it finds a single case of human-to-human transmission of bird flu there, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Saturday, while a defiant Taiwan said it would copy a patented antiviral drug.
Saving lives would be Beijing's top priority in efforts to contain a possible outbreak of bird flu, even if it meant slowing the economy, Huang Jiefu, a vice-minister of health, was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.
In Finland, the head of the World Bank said that while prevention measures would cost a lot, the economic damage from a pandemic would be far worse.
Speaking to health officials from China, Hong Kong and Macau in Yunnan province on Friday, Huang said any suspected human case would be quarantined.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that the strain is endemic in poultry in China and across much of Asia, and it may only be a matter of time before it develops the ability to pass easily from human to human.
China's sheer size and its attempts to conceal the SARS epidemic in 2003 have prompted fears among some experts that it has had more bird flu cases than officially recorded.
Since breaking out in late 2003 in South Korea, the deadly H5N1 strain of influenza has killed more than 60 people in four Asian countries and reached as far west as European Russia, Turkey and Romania, tracking the paths of migratory birds.
Russian authorities said they had uncovered more cases of bird flu in the Urals and were investigating a suspected outbreak in the Altai region close to the Kazakh border.
On Friday, new cases were reported in Britain, Romania and Croatia, but there was no immediate indication it was H5N1.
In Britain, the Agriculture Ministry said a parrot that died in quarantine had contracted bird flu. The parrot had been imported from Surinam and held with other birds from Taiwan.
http://search.muzi.com/news/ll/english/1384752.shtml
[LatelineNews 2005-10-22] HONG KONG - China will close its borders if it finds a single case of human-to-human transmission of bird flu there, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Saturday, while a defiant Taiwan said it would copy a patented antiviral drug.
Saving lives would be Beijing's top priority in efforts to contain a possible outbreak of bird flu, even if it meant slowing the economy, Huang Jiefu, a vice-minister of health, was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.
In Finland, the head of the World Bank said that while prevention measures would cost a lot, the economic damage from a pandemic would be far worse.
Speaking to health officials from China, Hong Kong and Macau in Yunnan province on Friday, Huang said any suspected human case would be quarantined.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that the strain is endemic in poultry in China and across much of Asia, and it may only be a matter of time before it develops the ability to pass easily from human to human.
China's sheer size and its attempts to conceal the SARS epidemic in 2003 have prompted fears among some experts that it has had more bird flu cases than officially recorded.
Since breaking out in late 2003 in South Korea, the deadly H5N1 strain of influenza has killed more than 60 people in four Asian countries and reached as far west as European Russia, Turkey and Romania, tracking the paths of migratory birds.
Russian authorities said they had uncovered more cases of bird flu in the Urals and were investigating a suspected outbreak in the Altai region close to the Kazakh border.
On Friday, new cases were reported in Britain, Romania and Croatia, but there was no immediate indication it was H5N1.
In Britain, the Agriculture Ministry said a parrot that died in quarantine had contracted bird flu. The parrot had been imported from Surinam and held with other birds from Taiwan.
