China's bird flu mystery

This week, millions of Chinese visited family cemetery plots for the annual Tomb Sweeping Festival. They left or burned objects they thought their deceased ancestors could use in the afterlife, including chickens, pigeons and other food delicacies. Mao Zedong banned tomb sweeping because he thought it a decadent symbol of China’s Confucian past. But this year, China’s Communist Party had a different concern for tomb sweepers: Don’t handle live birds for your ancestors, or you just might be joining them in the afterlife.

It’s bird flu.