Like many other rural workers, Cao at the end of January brought his wife and children back to his hometown for the Lunar New Year holiday, but in the end could not return to the city to work when Hubei province was blocked to prevent the spread of nCoV.
A sanitation worker crosses the street in the snow in Wuhan on February 15.
`We have never experienced panic like this,` Cao said from his hometown in Thaodian town, a poor rural area of Hubei province.
`My brother-in-law said that the authorities will not let us return to work before April, so he will break the law because he no longer has income to support the family. That is just as bad as getting the virus,`
Covid-19 has infected more than 80,000 people and killed more than 3,200 people across mainland China.
The hopes of many people, including Cao, were rekindled when President Xi Jinping last week visited the epidemic epicenter of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province.
`We are very angry because of the government’s decision,` said Truong Liang, a 36-year-old truck driver from Jingshan City, Hubei Province.
`We are all healthy but stuck at home. The government has blocked all the roads, but has not provided support or compensation for our losses,` Truong said.
For Cao, a driver working for a passenger car booking application in Dongguan, Guangdong province, one of China’s economic centers 1,200 km from Wuhan, the family’s financial situation is becoming strained.
With no income, he had to use a credit card to pay more than 420 USD in principal and interest for the car he bought with a bank loan from October 2018.
Cao’s sister’s family also fell into a similar situation, when both husband and wife could not return to work in Dongguan.
`In general, all young people in my village are in debt, without apartments, cars or phones,` Cao said.
Unlike the first generation of migrants who came to the city to work in the 1990s, young rural residents in China today no longer desire to return home to build a house and start a family.
China’s ratio of household debt to gross domestic product rose to a record high from 17.9% at the end of 2008 to 52.1% in 2018 and 55.8% last year.
Covid-19 brings `huge risks` to migrant workers who borrow money to buy houses, said Simon Zhao, deputy dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Hong Kong Branch of Beijing Normal University.
`Returning to work is vital. Many people in rural areas rush to borrow money to buy a house even when they can’t really afford it,` he said.
China’s 280 million migrant workers usually spend two to three weeks off at home during the Lunar New Year, while the rest of the time they work in factories.
With only one day off per week, most workers choose to work overtime from two to four hours a day in the summer to increase their income.
`In the past two months, all districts, towns, and villages across Hubei province have been deserted and quiet. Roads are blocked and people are guarding day and night,` Cao Minh Huy, 28 years old, lives
The situation in Cao’s village is also increasingly desperate.
`We have run out of money and will soon be broke,` she said.
Hannah