Coronavirus: Chinese overseas head home to safe haven under Beijing’s tough quarantine regime

Some Chinese abroad feel comfort of close family, health care, masks, social control, quarantines and government surveillance is best combination to beat pandemic

For one traveller from Zhejiang province, spectacle of thousands of people at German soccer match convinced him European approach was not enough

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Businessman Zhang Shaofeng (left) is one of many Chinese who have returned home to weather the coronavirus storm. Photo: Handout

Published: 5:00pm, 18 Mar 2020Updated: 11:52pm, 18 Mar 2020

Unsettled by the coronavirus epidemic in the United States, 26-year-old Liu, an exchange PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, returned to China at the weekend.

During his flights from Boston to Hong Kong and then to Beijing, Liu wore two layers of masks, goggles, plastic gloves and a raincoat to protect himself.

After arriving in Beijing, he spent 10 hours going through immigration and health checks. Despite the long journey and strict quarantine measures, Liu was happy to be back with his family.

As the coronavirus has spread across the world, infecting more than 193,000 people and killing more than 7,800, its presence in China has waned.

While overseas Chinese donated masks and gowns to China when the country was struggling with its outbreak of Covid-19, many of them are now debating if they should “escape” back home, to a place perceived by some as a safe haven in a global crisis.