November 30, 2005

Taiwan may restrict contact with China on bird flu fears

Almost nine in ten Taiwanese want the government to impose restrictions on contacts with rival China in the event of a major outbreak of bird flu, a government survey released Tuesday found.

The Mainland Affairs Council--the Cabinet-level body in charge of China policies-- said the survey showed 86 percent of Taiwanese polled are worried that an outbreak on the mainland could affect the island, and an identical percentage want to place tight restrictions on contacts between the two in such an event.

Bilateral contacts between people on both sides of the Straits have intensified over the past decade, spurred by deepening commercial and tourist links. Last year more than one million Taiwanese visits were registered on the mainland, and cumulative Taiwanese investment there continued to climb.

While the number of Chinese visitors to Taiwan is still small, a proposed deal between the sides could see it rise to 360,000 annually within a year or two.

China has reported at least three confirmed human cases of the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu, two of them fatal, in the past weeks. There have also been at least 24 cases of infections in poultry since Oct 19.

Taiwan's only known case of bird flu was found in a consignment of birds smuggled in from the mainland in October. No human infections have been recorded on the island.