Society

For Wang Fei, the journey from high-flying advertising executive to jobless national hate figure began with an extramarital affair. His disgrace was absolute and immediate. Rarely is there any other outcome after one becomes a target of the "human flesh search engine."

This is the name given to the Internet-powered manhunts that have achieved notoriety across China this year. A human flesh search engine is where thousands of volunteer cybervigilantes unite to expose the personal details of perceived evildoers and publish them on the Web.

The consequences for those on the receiving end often transcend the virtual world and can include loss of employment, public shaming, even imprisonment. Conversely, the most voracious "flesh hunters" are widely seen as the online equivalent of lynch mobs. Many of the participants are too young to draw a loose comparison with the "public criticisms" and purges of the Cultural Revolution more than 40 years ago.

Two things still haunt Wang Bin a year after an earthquake decimated his village: the death of his teenage son and a purchase he made more than a decade earlier.

He bought the cartful of bricks and two tons of cement in 1995 from a contractor who said they were extra material from a school construction project. The price was low, and Wang's neighbors had already taken advantage of the deal.

It was only after the magnitude-7.9 earthquake devastated Sichuan province last May 12 — razing towns, collapsing classrooms and taking almost 70,000 lives — that it hit the hollow-eyed, 45-year-old laborer.

"That material was actually meant for the school," Wang, a former construction worker, said recently at his temporary home near the ruins of Beichuan Middle School.

Police wearing face masks cordoned off the Metropark Hotel and a group of blue-gowned and masked health workers was seen entering the hotel in the bustling bar and nightclub district on Hong Kong island.

The first confirmed case of swine flu in Asia was recorded in Hong Kong Friday after a Mexican man who arrived via Shanghai tested positive, Chief Executive Donald Tsang announced.

More than 300 guests and staff at the hotel where the patient had briefly stayed were placed under quarantine for seven days as officials announced "draconian" measures in a bid to contain the A(H1N1) flu virus.

"We have our first confirmed swine flu case in Hong Kong. He is Mexican," Tsang told reporters.

The 25-year-old Mexican arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday from Mexico via Shanghai on China Eastern Airlines flight MU 505, Tsang said.

He was admitted to hospital on Thursday night suffering from a fever and tested positive on Friday for the flu virus. He was in a stable condition, Tsang said.

The Metropark Hotel in Wanchai district where he had been staying had been isolated, he said.

"I will raise the alert level from serious to emergency," the chief executive said.

Despite putting Hong Kong on its highest level of alert, Tsang said all social activities and exhibitions would go ahead as normal and schools would remain open in the city, which is still scarred by memories of the SARS epidemic in 2003 in which close to 300 died.

"I stress we don't need to panic," he said.

Health Secretary York Chow said guests and staff at the hotel would be quarantined for seven days.

"We have also exercised the authority... so that we will first isolate the hotel and also... ensure the relevant people are quarantined for seven days," Chow told reporters.

"Since this is the first case in Hong Kong we must be very careful as the chance of controlling and containing this infection is limited, we will try to be more draconian in our policy," he said.

However, he dismissed the idea of an entry bar for people flying from Mexico.

He said around 200 guests and 100 staff would be affected by the quarantine order at the hotel, issued under the control and prevention of disease ordinance.

"We will also prescribe Tamiflu for them, which is proven to be an effective prophylactic for this disease."

In a statement early Saturday, the government added that 12 guests who refused to remain at the hotel had been moved to the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village, a newly "designated isolation camp" in a country park for a seven-day quarantine.

Meanwhile authorities have placed the Mexican man's two travelling companions and his Hong Kong friend in quarantine at Princess Margaret Hospital.

They were also trying to find the two taxi drivers who were in contact with the man and the 142 passengers on the flight from Shanghai.

"We are also tracing the passengers who were on the same flight as this patient, particularly the three rows in front and three rows behind," Chow said.

"We're prepared to have them sent to hospital for inspection and also for quarantine," he said.

He appealed for other passengers and cabin crew to come forward for health checks.

"With this I hope that we can minimise the spread of this possible virus to our community," the health secretary said.

China's official Xinhua news agency reported early Saturday that the Ministry of Health was taking "prevention and control measures" following the confirmation of the spread of the virus to Hong Kong.

"The ministry said it is exerting efforts to track the passengers aboard the flights to ensure that they are quarantined," the report said, adding that it had passed flight information onto Hong Kong authorities.

Yuen Kwok-yung, who heads the team of researchers studying the flu at the University of Hong Kong, said there is currently no gold standard for the disease as each country is trying to develop its own tests.

Hong Kong, at the forefront of the SARS epidemic in 2003 and already on alert for bird flu, had previously announced a series of tough measures to combat any threat from swine flu.

The southern Chinese city has stepped up its protection measures, including the use of temperature screening machines at airports and other entry points.

Authorities have said they would detain anyone showing symptoms of the virus after arriving from an infected area.

Health officials have advised against all non-essential travel to worst-hit Mexico.

Firefighters are battling to contain wind-whipped fire that has been raging for nearly five days near a virgin forest in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang.

The fire started in Yinanhe Forest Farm on Monday afternoon and quickly spread northeast to Yichun City. It has killed one firefighter and injured four others.

The fire had affected more than 20,000 local residents and ravaged 20,000 hectares of wooded area by Thursday, according to the firefighting headquarters.

People living up to 35 km from the fire front were being evacuated, although the exact number being forced to move was not immediately known.

Fire crews worked overnight Thursday hoping to bring the fire in Yichun under control. But their efforts were hindered by wind gusts of up to 40 km per hour.

Local authorities said they expected Friday's drizzle and artificial rain would help extinguish the flames.

"We need to take advantage of the rain, put out the fire tonight and clean up the fire site to prevent invisible sparks from escalating into big flames again tomorrow," said Governor Li Zhanshu, who visited Yichun city Friday.

Yichun is home to more than 30 percent of the world's total Korean pine virgin forests and also a renowned granite stone-forest national park. Its forests are susceptible to fires every spring and autumn.

In another forest fire that burned through an oasis in the deserts of Aksu Prefecture of the northwestern Xinjiang Ugyur Autonomous Region Thursday night, more than 20 centuries-old trees were scorched.

Border police officers in Aksu said the fire started on grass at 11 p.m. and soon spread to the woods, with winds sweeping at 38 km per hour. The flames were put out at 4 a.m. Friday and no casualties were reported.