Claim: China heads into Lunar New Year on shutdown as virus spreads to Europe.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: 2009 flu pandemic in Asia
text: the China Inspection and Quarantine Science Research Institute, the measures already in place in China against bird flu are sufficient for this new disease, also certain lessons were learned from the 2003 SARS outbreak including that the state-controlled media doesn't cover up such events. 2 May, the Chinese government has decided to suspend flights from Mexico to Shanghai, the Foreign Ministry said. Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Administration of China also assigned a charter to transport stranded Chinese visitors back home. Among all carriers, China Eastern Airlines was the first choice as it is based in Shanghai, where the original and

title: Timeline of the SARS outbreak
text: Yi was named Zhang Wenkang's replacement as PRC health minister. On April 26–27, Chinese authorities closed down theaters, discos, and other entertainment venues in Beijing as the death toll in Beijing continued to rise, threatening to become the worst hit area of the country, eclipsing the Guangdong province. Authorities are bolstered by the fact that the infection rate seems to have declined, with the Guangdong region only exporting three new infections over the weekend. The economic impact is becoming dramatic as shops, restaurants, markets, bars, universities, schools, and many other businesses have closed, as well as some government ministries and

title: History of the People's Republic of China (2002–present)
text: around the world. The crisis marked a period of national mobilization, where schedules around the country shifted to accommodate for the control of the virus. Many educational institutions closed or had highly regulated schedules during the period between April and November 2003, and businesses were open on a very irregular basis. Restaurants, usually the centre of social life in China, were nearing bankruptcy. Quarantine measures were taken across the country, with designated hospitals in major cities treating the illness. The extreme measures left paranoid citizens with common illnesses to treat themselves at home to avoid contracting the virus at a

title: Influenza A virus subtype H7N9
text: that the Chinese government would extend the ban for four months. The health minister also said that they plan to prevent diseased birds from entering the market by setting up a facility where imported poultry can be quarantined to ensure they are disease-free. The WHO does not advise against travel to China at this point in time, as there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus. On April 9, 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Atlanta at Level II, the second-highest level of alert. Activation was prompted because

title: Influenza A virus subtype H5N8
text: official delegations from Japan, South Korea and China gathered in Beijing for a symposium on preventing and controlling bird flu and other diseases in East Asia, according to the website of China's ministry of agriculture. By the end of December the outbreak had spread to South Korea, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Thousands of birds and animals were being culled in Germany to stop the spread. In the United Kingdom the flu was found in a wild duck at a turkey farm in Lincolnshire. In South Korea, a total of record 18.4 million birds had been killed by December

title: 2009 flu pandemic in Hong Kong
text: antiviral drug Tamiflu and the Centre for Health Protection confirmed that he was no longer carrying the virus. Following the finding that 12 students at St. Paul's Convent School contracted the swine flu virus, Chief Executive Donald Tsang ordered the closure of all primary schools, kindergartens, and special schools for two weeks starting from 12 June. The 12 cases of infection were confirmed to be the first known cluster of local transmission of the virus. According to the Education Bureau, the school closure affected about 500,000 students from 964 kindergartens, 601 primary schools and 61 special schools. 2009 flu pandemic

title: 2009 flu pandemic in Europe
text: May. The infected was a 39-year-old woman from Moldova, living in Cyprus, who had returned from the United States on 28 May. By 11 July 250 cases had been confirmed in Cyprus. In the northern part of Cyprus, all the schools, universities and government offices were shut down for ten days. People were told not to leave their houses unless there was an emergency or it was urgent to do so. The Czech Republic confirmed its first case of swine flu on 25 May. The 29-year-old man was working as a pilot, and he had just returned from New York.

title: China–Mexico relations
text: collect some 100 of her citizens (mainly tourists, students and businesspersons) from Mexico, where 22 swine flu-related deaths had already occurred, and where the citizens had been hiding in northern hotels for some days waiting for the chance to leave. The Chinese were by no means alone in such measures, however. Reuters described the exodus thus: "Even as Mexico said the flu crisis seemed to be dissipating and prepared to reopen closed businesses, Chinese nationals wearing face masks and loaded with luggage streamed aboard a Chinese-chartered jet that stopped in Mexico City and the northern city of Tijuana." Despite this,

title: Timeline of the SARS outbreak
text: conference chaired by Gao Qiang several hours earlier, the PRC admitted that in Beijing there are more than 300 cases, as opposed to the previous figure of only 37. One day later the figure has increased to 407. Chinese officials also admitted to major underreporting of cases, which were attributed to bureaucratic ineptitude. On April 22, schools, in Hong Kong, start to reopen in stages. On April 23, Beijing announced that all primary and secondary schools will be closed for two weeks. A few days before, some colleges in Peking University had been closed because some students had been infected.

title: 2009 flu pandemic by country
text: within two weeks were to be quarantined. On 2 May, the Chinese government suspended flights from Tijuana to Shanghai. Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Administration of China assigned a charter to transport stranded Chinese visitors home. The first suspected case was reported on 10 May 2009. On 29 April the Food and Health Bureau of Hong Kong advised Hong Kong residents not to travel to Mexico unless absolutely necessary. The first case was a Mexican who arrived from Shanghai. The Bureau escalated the alert level from "alert" to "serious", which activated health protection measures in all ports of entry of Hong

title: New Tang Dynasty Television
text: station around this time after Chinese pressure. In June 2008, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders ("RSF") accused Eutelsat of closing down transmissions of NTD on June 16 through its W5 satellite to appease the Chinese government, and appealed to Eutelsat CEO Giuliano Berretta to quickly reverse its decision to suspend NTD’s use of Eutelsat. According to RSF, the NTD shutdown was a "premeditated, politically motivated decision". RSF stated that they were in possession of a recording of a purported conversation with a Beijing employee of Eutelsat confirming the allegations. Eutelsat claimed that the shutdown was due to a technical failure,

title: Influenza A virus subtype H7N9
text: during the winter months, and the second wave, which began in October, was fanned by a surge in poultry production timed for Chinese New Year feasts that began at the end of January. January 2014 brought a spike in reports of illness with 96 confirmed reports of disease and 19 deaths. As of April 11, 2014, the outbreak's overall total was 419, including 7 in Hong Kong, and the unofficial number of deaths was 127. A 5th epidemic of the H7N9 virus began in October 2016 in China. The epidemic is the largest since the first epidemic in 2013 and

title: Global storm activity of 2008
text: The weather event had topped local headlines eclipsing a critical government report related to the 2006 Lebanon War and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Several days of heavy wet snow, frigid temperatures and ice struck several regions of central China during the country's peak Lunar New Year Travel Season. At least 107 people were killed by the storm which stranded several thousands of people, canceled numerous flights and damaged or destroyed several homes, power lines and crops which had raised concerns for food and water shortage a. Among the fatalities, 11 were killed by a bus accident in Anhui with

title: National Intelligence Assessments on Infectious Diseases
text: the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Outbreak and Alert Response Network (GOARN), picked up reports of a "flu outbreak" in China through internet media monitoring and analysis and sent them to the WHO. Subsequently, the WHO requested information from Chinese authorities on December 5 and 11. Importantly, while GPHIN's capability had recently been upgraded to enable Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish translation, the system was limited to English or French in presenting this information. Thus, while the first reports of an unusual outbreak were in Chinese, an English report was not generated until January 21, 2003. In late

title: Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention
text: the People's Republic of China. George F. Gao is the director general. He has made contributions to the study of inter-species pathogen transmission. He organized the first World Flu Day on November 1 2018, commemorating the centenary of the influenza Epidemic of 1918-19. It is also the 15-year commemoration of the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak, which led to China prioritising investment in the public health system. Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC; ) is an agency of the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China based in

title: Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour
text: and liberate Europe in the process. But as the Chinese mobilise in Europe, a massive GLA assault against a nuclear reactor complex near Yencheng almost results in . The attack is thwarted, the Chinese having successfully secured their borders once more. Determined to eradicate the GLA in Europe, the Chinese begin the counter-offensive in Germany, but international opinion of the Chinese will determine how well they will be received, so restraint is placed upon the Chinese to not deploy their nuclear weapons here. The city of Coburg is heavily defended by the GLA, but the Chinese resolve manages to push

title: Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network
text: WHO. Earliest signs of the outbreak in China were reported February 11–24, when multiple people were reported to contract the disease. WHO was notified February 28 and then directly notified GOARN March 13. The first members of a WHO/GOARN outbreak control team arrived in Hong Kong March 14, followed by another 5-person GOARN team 12 days later. This second team transitioned to Guangdong, where they investigated the earliest cases of SARS and conducted interviews with health staff. The outbreak was declared by WHO to be contained by July 5. Worldwide, GOARN carried out many of the operations for the initial

title: Mai Po Marshes
text: Conservation Department of Hong Kong Government. These permits are free and normally take about four weeks to be processed. In February 2008, the Hong Kong government closed Mai Po for 21 days following the discovery of a great egret infected with H5N1, also known as avian flu. The closing marked the fourth in as many years and was consistent with the government's policy of closing Mai Po whenever an infection is discovered within a 3 kilometer radius of the premises. The World Wide Fund for Nature criticized the government, however, for what it called a discrepancy between the standards for

title: Dai Xu
text: the "Global Times", "People's Daily Online", and "Utopia (Internet forum)". He has published many books on military affairs. Dai is often noted for expressing hawkish or controversial opinions. In August 2012, for example, he described Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan as "the three running dogs of the United States in Asia," and argued that "We only need to kill one, and it will immediately bring the others to heel." In 2013, Dai wrote "Bird flu is the newest US bioweapon. It's all about terrifying lasers, and much less about engineering a new strain of bird flu to deploy against Chinese

title: Wake (Sawyer novel)
text: senior member of the Communist Party, recommends the President order a culling of ten to eleven thousand people in the infected area with an airborne chemical. The President agrees and launches the Changcheng Strategy, cutting off all telephone, satellite, and wireless communication with the rest of the world, so that word of the culling does not spread beyond China's borders. Wong Wai-Jeng, a freedom blogger who is known online as Sinanthropus, attempts to circumvent Internet censorship in China along with many other hackers. Collectively they learn about the bird flu outbreak. Many days after enacting the Changcheng Strategy, Zhang Bo,