Doing Business in China

China pledged to further beef up its flu prevention and control work on June 12.After the World Health Organization(WHO)  on Thursday raised its pandemic alert from 5 to 6,the highest level,formally declaring the widely spreading A(H1N1) influenza has developed into a global pandemic.

A spokesman of the Health Ministry, said the country "understands, supports and cooperates with" the world health body's pandemic declaration.He said the previous policy of "keeping the virus outside the border and preventing its spread within the country" had proved to be effective and practical and would be continued.

With China's huge population,uneven health infrastructure and occasional cases of the more leghtal bird flu,experts fear losing control of the H1N1 strain if it spreads widely in the country.If the flu starts spreading rapidly,the Chinese government may need to rethink it s quarantine policy,said Vivian Tan,the WHO's spokesman in China.

"This is something which can be done on a small scale when there are few in numbers, but if the numbers increase dramatically, China may want to reassess that policy as it's too resource intensive and it may not be sustainable," she said.

As of 8 am Friday,13 Chinese mainland provinces and municipalities had reported 126 confirmed A(H1N1) flu cases,of whom 60 had recovered.There had been no deaths.

As of Thursday, 75 countries and regions had officially reported 28,774 cases of A(H1N1) infections, including 144 deaths.