Slideshow: The artist strikes a nerve

Sharron Lovell / Polaris

Ai Weiwei, whose sculpture representing the mythical figures of the Chinese zodiac will be unveiled Monday in New York, has been detained by Chinese authorities and accused of serious crimes. Click to see photos of some of his most influential works.

Launch slideshow

BEIJING – China’s Ai Weiwei on Wednesday released a profanity-laced heavy-metal single based on the 81 days the firebrand artist and activist spent in detention.

Written and sung by Ai with music by prominent Chinese rocker Zuoxiao Zuzhou, “Dumbass” is “is a wall-to-wall simulation of the prison cell that Weiwei was detained in,” a spokeswoman for Ai said.

Lyrics in the song, translated into English, include "**** forgiveness, tolerance be damned, to hell with manners, the low-life’s invincible," and "The field is full of ****ers, dumbasses are everywhere."

A video to accompany the song is available to watch on YouTube [note: profanity in Chinese].

Ai’s detention and the hefty $2.4 million tax bill later levied against him led to protests around the world, as well as an upsurge of support in China for the award-winning artist, who was placed under house arrest following his release.

Ai said that recreating his cell and the traumatic experience of being imprisoned – which Ai claims included 24-hour supervision by two military police sergeants, even as he slept and used the bathroom – was a cathartic experience.   

The Chinese government has never confirmed the details of Ai’s detention.

The track, the first single off his new album “The Divine Comedy,” was described in a press release from his studio as “Ai Weiwei’s reflection on the struggle of protecting human rights and the freedom of expression in China.”

The Divine Comedy is expected to be released fully in June on Ai’s website and on iTunes.

Ai’s spokeswoman said that the artist was working on a second album that will shift away from the heavy-metal and towards a more romantic tone.

Related:

• Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei goes 'Gangnam Style'

• Chinese artist Ai Weiwei warned not to attend his own court case

• Ai Weiwei turns camera on himself, citing 'global' problem

Kim Kwang Hyon / AP

Choe Ryong Hae, center, and other North Korean delegates pose before leaving Pyongyang airport for China on Wednesday.

North Korea says that a "special envoy" for leader Kim Jong Un has left for China.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a short dispatch Wednesday that the envoy was Choe Ryong Hae.

There were no other details. Choe is the North Korea military's top political officer tasked with supervising the 1.2-million-strong force.

China is North Korea's only major political and economic benefactor. Beijing has faced pressure from Washington to use its influence to push Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Kim Jong Un hasn't visited Beijing since he took power after his father Kim Jong Il died in December 2011.

Choe was one of a handful of new vice marshals North Korea announced last year.

The Associated Press

Le Li / NBC News

Jiang Yuhong, with her husband and son, at the Carrot Organic Farm in Shunyi, China.

BEIJING – Shopping for groceries is a painful process for Tan Yinghong, a mother in her mid-30s. Just to buy meat, vegetables and milk for her 7-year-old son she has to pick her way through a minefield of possible perils – fake lamb, diseased pork, toxic ginger, tainted milk and unsafe bottled water.  

So after years of scandals and the government's inability to clean up the food supply chain, this spring the former high school teacher took matters into her own hands and signed a lease on about a quarter of an acre of farmland on the outskirts of Beijing with six other families.

It ends up urban gardening isn't just for hipsters in Brooklyn and San Francisco.

Tan and her friends plan to start by raising their own chickens and vegetables, and eventually grow all of their own food. The tender shoots of their first vegetable crop of tomatoes, cucumbers and onions have just broken through the soil.  

“I was so excited to see seeds growing from the earth,” Tan said.

Tan is part of a growing group who are tackling the food safety issues in China by raising it themselves.

Not much faith in ‘organic’ label
In 2006, when Tan moved to Beijing from a town near the southwestern city of Chongqing with her husband, she expected an adjustment to fast-paced city life.  She did not foresee spending countless hours looking for safe food for her son.

A 2008 scandal involving melamine-tainted milk and infant formula was the first wakeup call. As a result of the chemical melamine being added to the milk and baby formula, an estimated 300,000 were sickened and six infants died. Two people from one milk company were executed in the aftermath, but no new regulations were put in place.

After that, Tan switched to imported and organic food. But a rash of scams, including fake Evian destroyed her trust in products that were supposedly imported.

And Tan was skeptical that the vegetables marked with green "organic" stickers were really any safer.

She’s not alone. A recent survey by Insight China Magazine and Tsinghua University indicates almost 70 percent of China’s consumers feel insecure about food safety.

The government regulates organic labels, but farmers must pay a fee to apply for the certificates, and many Chinese consumers don’t believe the market is regulated strictly enough to ensure the veracity of producers' claims.

China’s official Xinhua news agency reported Thursday that the State Council, China's cabinet, recently ordered local government departments to step up checks on meat and processed meat products, and carry out detailed inspections of rural factories, workshops and warehouses as well as private slaughterhouses.

Beijing has repeatedly called for greater inspections of food processing facilities, but they haven’t had much success building consumer trust in the past. The latest clampdown encourages local governments to offer rewards to individuals who inform on illegal activities

Le Li / NBC News

The greenhouses at Carrot Organic Farm in Shunyi, China.

Carrot Organic Farm
Like Tan, Jiang Yuhong, 37, became aware of the food safety when she was pregnant in 2010. She decided to stick to organic food sold at Walmart, which many consumers trust more because it’s a foreign company. While Jiang barely considered the cost, she just thought the organic vegetables didn't taste right.

Eventually she moved from the center of Beijing to the suburbs of Shunyi and built a house beside a plot of land where she could grow her own vegetables. 

After two years of farming, Jiang realized many of her friends actually enjoyed working in her fields during weekend gatherings. She saw a business opportunity and went big.

So she founded Carrot Organic Farm on 124 acres in January 2012. 

The Carrot Organic Farm has 207 greenhouses; each is about 8,000 square feet and is divided into 23 units of about 350 square feet. Customers can rent as much space as they like, but the minimum is one unit. And it’s pricey:  the minimum membership fee is about $600, roughly a month’s salary of a recent graduate in Beijing.

For those too busy or not inclined to spend spare time tending crops, the farm provides workers and door-to-door delivery. Jiang decided not to pay for the organic certification, and instead lets customers watch their food grow themselves. She installed surveillance cameras to allow clients to monitor their vegetables at any time. 

Her bet paid off. Within a year of opening, she's recouped her initial investment and her scheme has 3,000 members. Given the cost, most of her clients are members of the elite, as well as international tech companies like Oracle and Panasonic.

Jiang now divides her time between the company, her own farm and her son. She says she gets just five or six hours of sleep a night and works straight through the weekends, but has no complaints.

On her phone Jiang scrolls through pictures of her son, running in her ample backyard.    

“Look at the way he is kicking,” Jiang said. “He is organic.” 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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A Nixon returns to China, retracing steps of 1972 visit

This story was originally published on Tue May 14, 2013 4:51 PM EDT

BEIJING -- Christopher Cox Nixon began retracing the steps of his grandfather's historic 1972 visit to China by walking across Tiananmen Square with an entourage that included several former Nixon aides.

"The stark contrast between then and now," marveled Jack Brennan, who had accompanied President Richard Nixon to China as his Marine Corp aide. "The colors, and nobody smiled back then."

As if on cue, a young Chinese woman in a bright dress, big white-rimmed sunglasses and a smile that seemed as broad as the Tiananmen Gate, bounded forward requesting a photograph. Although not with Brennan, but with the young Nixon's glamorous wife, Andrea Catsimatidis, clad in a striking red dress.

Catsimatidis, daughter of supermarket billionaire John Catsimatidis -- a candidate for mayor of New York -- duly obliged, as she would several more times as the group strolled on through the Forbidden City.

It is likely that none of the Chinese fans had a clue who she was -- and they may never have heard of either of the Nixons. But it seemed a cool thing to do, uploading the photo from a smartphone to one of the many social networking sites patronized by young Chinese.

Yes, this country has changed.

Andy Wong / AP

In this combo photo, U.S. President Richard Nixon and his wife Pat Nixon have light moments at a huge stone elephant, left, on Feb. 24, 1972; while at right, Nixon's grandson Christopher Cox and his wife Andrea Catsimatidisat visit the same spot at the Ming Tomb, north of Beijing, on  May 4, 2013.

President Nixon called his historic 1972 visit "the week that changed the world," ending 25 years of a diplomatic freeze between the two countries. The young Nixon’s visit marked the centenary of his grandfather's birth.

"What an incredible change from 40 years ago," said the young Nixon, a 34-year-old investment banker with political ambitions of his own. "Just look at the personal freedoms, not political freedoms, but personal freedoms -- how people dress, how people interact with each other."

The 1972 trip is credited with opening China to the world. It was also an important Cold War play, driving a deeper wedge between China and the Soviet Union. Nixon was fiercely anti-communist, and the term "Nixon going to China" became a catchphrase for an unexpected action by a politician.

"We should never keep a billion of the world's most able and hard-working people in isolation," said his grandson. "I think that he [President Nixon] would have expected to see the Chinese people so prosperous and industrious."

The anniversary trip was designed to stress the positives of both the Nixon administration and the Chinese Communist Party, which gave the group red-carpet treatment as they traveled last week to Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou.

One highlight was a banquet at the Great Hall of the People, hosted by State Councilor Yang Jiechi, China's top foreign policy official, and designed to mirror a banquet thrown for President Nixon.

A big screen at the front of the room described the 1972 summit as the "most important event in the history of international diplomacy in the 20^th century."

Andy Wong / AP

Christopher Cox, grandson of former U.S. President Richard Nixon, second from right, and his wife Andrea Catsimatidis, third from right, pose with Chinese tourists as they tour the Great Wall of China at Badaling, north of Beijing, on May 4. A delegation led by Cox is here to commemorate Nixon's centennial by retracing his 1972 historical visit to China.

Among the Chinese dignitaries was Tang Wensheng, who had been interpreter for Chairman Mao Zedong back then. Mao had suffered a stroke a few days before Nixon arrived, and she said the Chinese side was worried about whether Mao would be well enough. But the ailing Mao was able to meet Nixon.

Robert McFarlane, former national security adviser to President Nixon, said the summit set the scene for extensive sharing of privileged information.

"We shared the most sensitive intelligence about the Soviet Union with China, intelligence we didn't even share with our allies," he said.

He said this was designed as a mark of sincerity, but it also served Washington's purpose of further poisoning relations between the two communist giants.

Back then, of course, relations between China and the U.S. were fairly simple -- there weren't any.

Today China is a much more open, yet complicated, place. Relations can be tense and difficult. The two are economic and political rivals, and U.S. officials are much more regular visitors as they grapple with a host of issues from cyberspying to North Korea. 

"The problems haven't become any easier," McFarlane said. "Issues like cybersecurity, regional territorial disagreements between China and her neighbors and certainly terrorism -- all of these look daunting."

As the toasts got underway, there was much talk at the banquet of reviving the spirit of 1972.

"It’s important for the two countries to talk to each other frankly," McFarlane said.

Related links: 

Chairman Mao's granddaugher makes China's rich list 

China labels US the 'real hacking empire' after Pentagon report 

'Charlie Two Shoes': A story of wartime loyalty and friendship

Mark Ralston / AFP - Getty Images

A Chinese paramilitary officer rides a scooter in Beijing on Wednesday. Beijing dismissed an annual Pentagon report that accused it of widespread cyberspying on the U.S. government, rejecting it as an "irresponsible

BEIJING -- China on Wednesday accused the United States of sowing discord between it and its neighbors after the Pentagon said Beijing is using espionage to fuel its military modernization, branding Washington the "real hacking empire.”

The latest salvo came a day after China's foreign ministry dismissed as groundless a Pentagon report that accused China for the first time of trying to break into U.S. defense computer networks.

The Pentagon also cited progress in Beijing's effort to develop advanced-technology stealth aircraft and to build an aircraft carrier fleet to project power further offshore.

The People's Liberation Army Daily called the report a "gross interference in China's internal affairs.”

"Promoting the ‘China military threat theory’ can sow discord between China and other countries, especially its relationship with its neighboring countries, to contain China and profit from it," the newspaper said in a commentary that was carried on China's Defense Ministry website.

The United States is "trumpeting China's military threat to promote its domestic interests groups and arms dealers,” the newspaper said, adding that it expects "U.S. arms manufacturers are gearing up to start counting their money.”

The remarks in the newspaper underscore the escalating mistrust between China and the United States over hacking, now a top point of contention between Washington and Beijing.

A U.S. computer security company, Mandiant, said in February a secretive Chinese military unit was likely behind a series of hacking attacks that targeted the United States and stole data from more than 100 companies.

That set off a war of words between Washington and Beijing.

China has said repeatedly that it does not condone hacking and is the victim of hacking attacks -- most of which it says come from the United States.

"As we all know, the United States is the real 'hacking empire' and has an extensive espionage network," the People's Daily, a newspaper regarded as a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, said in a commentary.

"In recent years, the United States has continued to strengthen its network tools for political subversion against other countries,” the article said.

"Cyber weapons are more frightening than nuclear weapons," the People's Daily said. "To establish military hegemony on the Internet by repeatedly smearing other countries is a dangerous and wrong path to take and will ultimately end up in shooting themselves in the foot."

Related links:

Report: China snooping around Pentagon computers

'Not based in fact': China angrily denies being behind widespread US hacking

Analysis: As cyberthreat looms, here's what really matters

Andy Wong / AP file

People carry sticks of barbecued mutton through a crowd at a celebration in Beijing. Chinese authorities have announced a crackdown on sales of tainted and fraudulent meat, including rat passed off as mutton.

BEIJING -- Chinese police have broken a crime ring that passed off more than $1 million in rat and small-mammal meat as mutton in a food safety crackdown that coincides with a bird flu outbreak and other environmental pressures, authorities said.

Authorities have arrested 904 suspects since the end of January for allegedly selling and producing fake or tainted meat products, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday.

During the crackdown, police discovered one suspect who had used additives to spice up and sell rat, fox and mink meat at markets in Shanghai and Jiangsu province.

Police arrested 63 suspects connected to the crime ring in a case valued at more than 10 million yuan, or $1.6 million, in sales since 2009.

Despite persistent efforts by police, "food safety crimes are still prominent, and new situations are emerging with new characteristics," the ministry's statement said, citing "responsible officials."

Police confiscated more than 22 tons of fake or inferior meat products after breaking up illegal food plants during the nationwide operation, the ministry said.

Food safety and environmental pollution are chronic problems in China, and public anxiety over cases of fake or toxic food often spreads quickly.

In April, many consumers lost their appetite for poultry as an outbreak of the H7N9 bird flu virus spread in China. Sales dropped by 80 percent in eastern China, where the virus has been most prevalent, although experts stress that cooked chicken is perfectly safe.

In March, more than 16,000 rotting pigs were found floating in one of Shanghai's main water sources, triggering a public outcry. Overcrowding at pig farms was probably behind the die-off and the pigs' disposal in the Huangpu River.

The public security ministry said police had confiscated more than 15 metric tons of tainted pork in Anhui province, although as much as 60 metric tons had been sold in Anhui and Fujian provinces since mid-2012.

But it was the rodent meat in particular that people couldn't stomach, with Internet users turning to the popular microblogging site Sina Weibo to vent their outrage.

"Rats? How disgusting. Everything we eat is poison," one user wrote.

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More China coverage from our Behind the Wall blog

BEIJING – Next weekend, an 80-year-old Chinese American called Charlie Tsui will give the commencement address at the College of the Ozarks in Missouri.

The events which shaped Tsui's life took place well before any of the 270 students receiving their bachelor degrees were born, though his story of loyalty and friendship easily bridges the generational divide.

Tsui was born in a village just outside the Chinese coastal city of Qingdao, which is where he first met U.S. Marines, stationed there at the end of the World War II. He lived in a hut just beyond the barbed wire of the Marine compound. It was a time of immense turmoil in China, which was gripped by a civil war that would eventually lead to the Communists taking over in 1949.

Tsui would bring the Marines boiled eggs and warm peanuts from his village.

The Marines adopted him, gave Tsui food and clothes, taught him English and paid for him to go to the American school in the city. They also gave him a nickname: “Charlie Two Shoes,” since his original Chinese name, Tsui Chi Hsii, was tough to pronounce.

NBC News

Charlie Tsui, nicknamed "Charlie Two Shoes" as a child by the U.S. Marines who became like brothers to him in Qingdao, China after World War II.

"We were like brothers in the Marine Corps," he recalls. "We love each other, just like brother and sister."

But the Marines were not able to take Tsui with them when they left shortly before the Communists took control.

"Leaving him over there when I left in 1947, it was like leaving a wounded Marine behind," said Don Sexton, who was squad leader back then.

NBC News

Charlie Tsui as a child in Qingdao, China after World War II.

For years, the Marines heard nothing of Tsui, who was jailed and then kept under house arrest for seven years for refusing to denounce his Marine buddies.

In 1983, Tsui did manage to get a letter out, and NBC News was able to track him down. The timing was good, as China was opening up, and the Marines campaigned successfully to get him a visa for the US, his family joining him two years later. He was soon running a successful restaurant business in Chapel Hill, N.C., which of course was the scene over the years of many a Marine reunion.

But having gotten to the U.S., seemingly in the face of massive odds, he then faced a 17-year-battle with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He came close to deportation before gaining legal residency and ultimately citizenship under a 1992 law prompted by the Tiananmen Square massacre.

"He was one special person. Now he's like family," said Carl Frost, one of those Marines.

In 2002, Tsui was made an "honorary Marine" in an official ceremony at Camp Lejeune. 

Frost and Sexton were among the members of Tsui's Marine family who recently returned to Qingdao with Tsui for the first time since he left all those years ago. Also on the trip were students from the College of the Ozarks, which sponsored the visit. The college has a program that pairs students with American veterans, taking them back to their battlefields or military stations.

Today's Qingdao is a very different place, with modern glistening buildings and brash prosperity. NBC News also joined the trip as an at times bewildered Charlie Two Shoes sought out the landmarks of his childhood.

NBC News

Charlie Tsui and a group of his old Marine buddies return to Qingdao, China for the first time in 30 years.

"That was the cave where the Japanese stored their weapons," he said, pointing at the craggy rocks just beyond what is now a sports field, but had been a military parade ground, during the Japanese occupation of the city.

The old Marines barracks has long since been reclaimed by the city's university. "That's where I slept, up the end there," he said, pointing down a long corridor.

The old American School is now an elite kindergarten. Remarkably, Tsui's old family home still stands, though much expanded by the migration workers now living there. His village, Chukechuang, has become part of the city's sprawling suburbs. This is where he met an elder brother he'd thought was dead.

 "I was worried. He's alright. He's alright," he said, as the two stood gripping each other's hands.

When the Americans left, Tsui had moved into an orphanage run by nuns, which is where he developed a strong Christian faith, which he says kept him going through those hard times.

St. Michael's Cathedral, where he received his first communion, still stands - a city landmark. Tsui would walk 10 miles, there and back, to worship on Sundays until the Communists shut it down.

Tsui's return visit was during a big Chinese holiday. The beach and promenade at Qingdao was packed. For a moment Tsui was lost in thought, before recalling where the last of the American ships were loaded before leaving. Back then he thought he'd never see his Marine buddies again. But he never gave up hope.

Related links:

More NBC News reporting on China in Behind the Wall

This story was originally published on Thu May 2, 2013 4:40 PM EDT

Paul J. Richards / AP

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, is greeted by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on April 13. Xi has made battling corruption a top theme of his administration, warning the problem is so severe it could threaten his party's survival.

BEIJING -- China's top newspaper warned on Wednesday that some government officials were avoiding new President Xi Jinping's graft-busting instructions to be frugal by taking banquets and other lavish displays underground, including hiding liquor in water bottles.

Since becoming Communist Party boss in November, and president in March, Xi has made battling pervasive corruption a top theme of his administration, warning the problem is so severe it could threaten the party's survival.

But despite his repeated admonitions for officials to practice frugality and stop wasting public funds, some people still have not gotten the message or are actively finding ways around it, the party's main People's Daily said in a front page commentary.

"In some places the use of public money for eating and drinking has switched from high-end hotels to private venues and places of business ... which has become known as 'low-key luxury,'" the paper said.

Cases had come to light of "saunas in farmhouses" and "maotai being put in mineral water bottles", the paper said, in reference to the fiery -- and expensive -- spirit traditionally drunk at banquets.

"These ways of pulling the wool over people's eyes is typical of not following instructions and not stopping what is banned," the commentary added.

This phenomenon has reminded the party of the need to strictly enclose power "in the fence of supervision" and "the cage of regulation," it said.

"Such a mechanism must be a long-lasting one, in order to make corruption not only detectable, but also impossible."

While Xi has also attempted to tackle corruption in the armed forces, for example by seeking to dismantle a system of privilege which has allowed the drivers of military vehicles to do as they please on the roads, he has taken few other concrete steps.

There has been little apparent progress to get officials to publicly disclose their assets, and the party has given no indication it will allow the establishment of a fully independent judicial body to tackle corruption.

As well, almost no senior officials have been fired or prosecuted for graft since Xi came to power, with the vast majority of cases which have come to light involving lower level officials with little real power.

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• Chinese ex-police detained while trying to stamp out corruption
• More China coverage from our Behind The Wall blog

BEIJING - A confrontation involving axes, knives, at least one gun that ended with the burning down of a house left 21 people dead in China's troubled far-west region of Xinjiang, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

It was the deadliest violence in the region since July 2009, when Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, was rocked by clashes between majority Han Chinese and minority Uighurs that killed nearly 200 people.

Nine residents, six police and six ethnic Uighurs were killed in Tuesday's drama, said Hou Hanmin, spokeswoman for the Xinjiang government.  "It's certainly a terrorist attack," she said.

It was not immediately clear how many burned to death.

Hou did not name any group, but China has blamed previous attacks in energy-rich Xinjiang - strategically located on the borders of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Central Asia - on Islamic separatists who want to establish an independent East Turkestan.

Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people native to Xinjiang, chafe at Chinese controls on their religion, language and culture.

Three "community workers" were patrolling a neighborhood of Bachu County, known as Maralbexi by Uighurs, in Kashgar after a tip-off that there were "suspicious people" in a private house, Hou said.

One of the three used a phone to call for help after they found a number of knives, resulting in their being killed by 14 Uighur "rioters" in the house, Hou said.

"The community people were just conducting regular checks, but the action from the rioters was planned and well prepared," Hou said.

Several police and other "community workers" came in different groups to the home where the Uighurs used axes and large knives to slash the police officers and workers, Hou said.

Only one police officer was armed with a gun, she said.

The battle ended with the gang members burning down the house, killing the rest of the people there, Hou said. Eight people had been detained.

Some Chinese officials blame such attacks on Muslim militants trained in Pakistan. But many rights groups say China overstates the threat to justify its tight grip on the region.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the "violent terrorist acts" would not win popular support.

"The current situation in Xinjiang is good, but a small group of terrorist forces is still trying every possible means to disturb and destroy the present stability and trend of development in Xinjiang," Hua told reporters.

Related:

More China coverage from our Behind the Wall blog

Wang Zhao / AFP - Getty Images

A new strain of bird flu identified in China "is one of the most lethal influenza viruses we have seen so far," Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Assistant Director-General for Health Security, tells journalists at a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

BEIJING – A new type of bird flu that has killed 22 people in China since March is one of the most deadly strains of influenza known, international health experts said on Wednesday. 

"This is one of the most lethal influenza viruses we have seen so far," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Assistant Director-General for Health Security. "We are at the beginning of our understanding of this virus."

The H7N9 strain appears to spread more easily to humans than SARS, a different virus that started killing people in Asia a decade ago, experts said. Severe acute respiratory syndrome killed around 800 people globally in 2003 before it was stopped.

"This is an unusually dangerous virus for humans," added Fukuda, who was speaking in Beijing alongside leading flu experts from around the world.  

The delegation from United States, Europe, Hong Kong and Australia, as well as China, have just concluded a week-long investigation that took them to affected areas in Shanghai and Beijing.

Little is known
The group of experts made an impressive display of international cooperation, but at the same time admitted just how little is known about the virus that has infected 108 people since March.

"We are at the very early stages of this investigation," said Dr. Nancy Cox, who heads Influenza Division at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "There's a lot to be learned.”

Most of the cases so far have been found in eastern China, around the Yangtze River delta, but in recent days there have been cases in central and northern China, including the capital. Most have been what Fukuda called "sporadic cases."  

He said a few family clusters have been found, which could be the result of exposure to the same source of virus, or limited person-to-person transmission.

But he said: "'Evidence so far is not sufficient to conclude there is person-to-person transmission. Moreover, no sustained person-to-person transmission has been found.”

The experts concluded that live poultry markets were the most likely source of infection.

The experts praised the swift action of Chinese authorities in closing live poultry markets, and said it was "encouraging" that there have been no new cases in Shanghai since its markets were shuttered.

And they called for continued international cooperation against a virus that doesn't recognize borders. 

"The risks of an outbreak situation are shared in a globalized world, where we are all interconnected," said Fukuda.

Legacy of distrust
All of those who spoke today went out of their way to praise the response and of the Chinese authorities and their openness and transparency. There is enormous sensitivity to any suggestion that their presence in China implies any criticism of local efforts.

China still lives in the shadow of the SARS pandemic, which began here a decade ago and killed hundreds worldwide, including in the U.S. It was made worse by an initial cover-up by the Chinese authorities.

"The response reflects earlier and strong investments in health and preparedness made by China," said Fukuda.

SARS also left a legacy of distrust, which was on display earlier in the week in Shanghai, when a press conference by the local government and WHO was gatecrashed by the daughter of a couple infected with H7N9. The 26-year-old demanded information about her quarantined father; her mother had died.

"The hospitals and medical staff appear friendly to members of the media like you but have responded in a lukewarm manner to inquiries from family members like me," she told the South China Morning Post. She was taken away by officials.

The experts said that in the absence of so much basic information about the extent of the public health risk it was critical to maintain a high level of awareness. They also noted that the weather is warming up in China, which might provide a bit of a respite and buy them some important time, since H7N9 -- in common with other influenza -- spreads less easily in the spring and summer.

Related:

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• Six more diagnosed with new bird flu in China
• Scientists ready to re-start bird flu experiments

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 24, 2013 6:19 AM EDT

Chile's Navy via AP file

Chinese factory fishing ship Kai Xin, pictured burning just off the coast of Antarctica, Friday.

A Chinese factory fishing ship that burned last week off Antarctica has sunk without anyone on board, Chile's navy said Monday. 

The vessel Kai Xin caught fire and its 97 crew members were rescued by a Norwegian ship. Then it began to drift in unmanned and in flames, zigzagging dangerously close to glaciers. 

The Chilean navy said an official representing the ship's owner confirmed that the vessel went down Sunday afternoon near Bransfield Strait at the Antarctic peninsula.

A Chilean navy tugboat was searching for the ship's remains and stood ready to contain any spilled fuel.

The first alert of the sinking came from the Chinese fishing ship Fu Rong Hai, which on its way through Antarctic sent an email to the shipowner saying the Kai Xin no longer appeared on radar. Crewmembers then saw fishing nets and small boats drifting in the chilly waters.

Chile's navy told the Fu Rong Hai to remain there until the navy tugboat Lautaro reached the site and began to search for the sunken ship.

Officials had feared a damaging oil spill. But Capt. Juan Villegas, maritime governor for Chile's portion of Antarctica, said that appeared unlikely now.

"An environmental disaster is ruled out because of the fire on board," Villegas told The Associated Press. "Experts say that if there was any fuel on board it has burned out by now."

The 341-foot Chinese vessel was built in 1990, according to the website of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.

The Kai Xin was operated by Shanghai Kaichuang Marine International Co., a company that specializes in deep-sea fishing, fisheries products and processing. The ship used pelagic trawling to fish and could sail in loose pack ice, according to the commission.

A company statement posted last week said the fire occurred while the ship was fishing. It said Kaichuang would investigate the cause of the accident and the extent of the damage before releasing more details. 

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US pushes for Antarctic marine protections