ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
April 6, 2020
Wuhan’s favorite noodles are back as virus-hit city recovers
WUHAN, China (AP) — The noodles
smothered in peanut sauce are as much a
trademark of Wuhan as deep-dish pizza in
Chicago or spaghetti in Rome. Zhou
Guoqiong still isn’t allowed to serve
customers inside her shop, but the stream
of eager customers now lining up outside to
take away those noodles testifies to the
powerful desire to savor the familiar again
after the easing of months of strict
lockdown.
Despite radically falling numbers of
coronavirus infections, officials emphasize
that Wuhan and the rest of China still
have a long way to go. But the
reappearance
of
Wuhan’s
favorite
breakfast noodles is a tasty sign that life is
slowly beginning to transition to normal in
the Chinese city that served as the original
epicenter of the global outbreak, first
detected in December.
Five days after reopening, Zhou and her
husband now sell several hundred bags of
reganmian, or “hot dry noodles,” every day
— less than before the outbreak, but more
than enough to keep them busy.
“I’m happy as long as there is business,”
Zhou said.
Wuhan recorded more than 2,500 deaths
from the coronavirus and reported more
than 50,000 cases, and the city essentially
shut down starting January 23.
The head of the National Health
Commission, Ma Xiaowei, said the “most
dangerous, most critical stage” of the
domestic outbreak appears to have passed.
But he was insistent that strict
quarantines on travellers and other
restrictions such as school closures will be
lifted only gradually and very, very
carefully.
“At present, the epidemic situation in
China is not over,” foreign ministry
spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a
daily briefing.
China says almost all of its coronavirus
cases are now brought into the country by
travellers from abroad, and Wuhan has
not recorded any new confirmed or
suspected cases in more than a week.
Officials have said it must go a full 14
consecutive days without new cases before
they lift draconian travel restrictions and
social-distancing demands.
That can’t come soon enough for Mr.
Xiao, who runs a small butcher shop and
tries to be guardedly optimistic about the
future. He said his stock can last 10 days at
the most and he needs to see a big jump in
business.
“I estimate in the next several months, I
can sell half a cow every day,” said Xiao,
who declined to give his full name.
Much still hangs in the balance: Will his
three partners rejoin the business? And
with no other work skills, what will he do if
SLOW PATH TO NORMALCY. A storeowner
sells to-go orders of reganmian, or “hot dry noodles,”
in Wuhan, China on March 31, 2020. The reappear-
ance of Wuhan’s favorite noodles is a tasty sign that
life is slowly returning to normal in the Chinese city at
the epicenter of the global coronavirus outbreak. The
steady stream of customers buying bags of noodles
smothered in peanut sauce testifies to a powerful de-
sire to enjoy the familiar again after months of strict
lockdown. (AP Photo/Olivia Zhang)
sales don’t pick up?
Along Yanzhi Road in Wuhan’s
Wuchang district, shops are doing a brisk
business in staples such as meat and
noodles, their loudspeakers blaring to
attract customers.
Outside a food market, a long line
formed of mostly elderly customers, all
keeping their distance from each other and
wearing the required masks, with some
adding rubber gloves and hats.
The market operates from only 9:00am
to 5:00pm and admits just 30 customers at
a time, for a maximum of 20 minutes each.
One of those in line, 70-year-old retired
civil servant Xiao Yuxia, said she lives by
herself and planned to eat fish for the first
time in two months.
While many Chinese ordered what they
needed using phone apps, 75-year-old
retired worker Wang Haitao said he found
that too confusing, and he and his wife are
finding fewer choices on the list of options
provided by community volunteers.
Along with meat, fresh vegetables
appeared to be in good supply, though not
Continued on page 13
Tokyo Olympics rescheduled for July 23 to August 8 in 2021
Continued from page one
international federations (IF),” organizing committee
CEO Toshiro Muto said. “I believe the IFs have accepted
the games being held in the summer.”
Muto said the decision was made and the IOC said it
was supported by all the international sports federations
and was based on three main considerations: to protect
the health of athletes, to safeguard the interests of the
athletes and Olympic sport, and the international sports
calendar.
“These new dates give the health authorities and all
involved in the organization of the games the maximum
time to deal with the constantly changing landscape and
the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the
IOC said. “The new dates ... also have the added benefit
that any disruption that the postponement will cause to
the international sports calendar can be kept to a
minimum, in the interests of the athletes and the IFs.”
Both Mori and Muto have said the cost of rescheduling
the Olympics will be “massive” — local reports estimate
billions of dollars — with most of the expenses borne by
Japanese taxpayers.
Muto promised transparency in calculating the costs
and testing times deciding how they are divided up.
“Since it (the Olympics) were scheduled for this
summer, all the venues had given up hosting any other
events during this time, so how do we approach that?”
Muto asked. “In addition, there will need to be guarantees
when we book the new dates, and there is a possibility this
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will incur rent payments. So there will be costs incurred
and we will need to consider them one by one. I think that
will be the tougher process.”
Katsuhiro Miyamoto, an emeritus professor of sports
economics at Kansai University, puts the costs as high as
$4 billion. That would cover the price of maintaining
stadiums, refitting them, paying rentals, penalties, and
other expenses.
Japan is officially spending $12.6 billion to organize the
Olympics. However, an audit bureau of the Japanese
government says the costs are twice that much. All of the
spending is public money except $5.6 billion from a
privately funded operating budget.
The
Switzerland-based
International
Olympic
Committee is contributing $1.3 billion, according to
organizing committee documents. The IOC’s contribution
goes into the operating budget.
IOC president Thomas Bach has repeatedly called the
Tokyo Olympics the best prepared in history. However,
Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso also termed them
“cursed.” Aso competed in shooting in the 1976 Olympics,
and was born in 1940.
The Olympics planned for 1940 in Tokyo were cancelled
because of Japan’s war with China.
The run-up to the Olympics also saw IOC member
Tsunekazu Takeda, who also headed the Japanese
Olympic Committee, forced to resign last year amid a
bribery scandal.
Garment workers going unpaid as fashion labels cancel orders
Continued from page 2
due to the virus outbreak.
Bangladesh, a nation of 160 million, deployed soldiers
and police to enforce a nationwide 10-day shutdown to
slow the spread of the coronavirus in the densely
populated country. But in an indication of the importance
of the garment sector, which provides 80% of the country’s
export earnings, those factories have been deemed an
essential industry.
Kalpona Akter, executive director of the Bangladesh
Center for Workers Solidarity group, blasted buyers for
cancelling orders. “The workers are panicked,” she told
The Associated Press.
“We have a cruel reality here. Simply, they will go
hungry, their families will suffer, their children, their
parents will suffer for lack of food, medicine. The global
brands will lose a fraction of their profit, the owners will
also lose their share, but the workers will be left without
food and medicine,” Akter said.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and
Exporters Association said that as of late March, orders
worth about $2.7 billion had been cancelled or suspended,
directly affecting nearly 2 million workers.
In a video message, its president, Rubana Huq, urged
global buyers including H&M and Wal-Mart to not cancel
orders and to accept those already finished or under
production.
“We will have 4.1 million workers literally going hungry
if we don’t all step up to a commitment to the welfare of the
workers,” Huq said.
“One thing is very clear, our foremost responsibility was
towards our workers. We are a manufacturing country,
our reality and your reality is totally different, but it is not
a time to point out differences, it’s a time through which
we need to work together,” she said.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced
a 50 billion taka (more than $600 million) support package
POOR OUTCOME. Bangladeshis work at the Snowtex garment fac-
tory in Dhamrai, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, in this April 19, 2018 file photo.
A report released by Mark Anner, director of Pennsylvania State Univer-
sity’s Center for Global Workers’ Rights, says the coronavirus crisis has
resulted in millions of factory workers, mostly women from rural areas,
being sent home without the wages or severance pay they are owed.
(AP Photo/A.M. Ahad, File)
for export-oriented manufacturers, mainly apparel
makers, to help pay workers. But factory owners say it will
only provide about one month’s salary.
“We appreciate the announcement of the prime
minister. This is a very good gesture, but I want to say
very humbly that it’s very tiny, very small,” said S.M.
Khaled, managing director of Snowtex Group.
Khaled said his main factory, which employs nearly
10,000 workers, is still running but might have to stop if
more orders are cancelled.
“Our buyers are suspending orders, the workers are
confused, the owners are confused, this is really a very bad
time,” he said.
“We have imported fabrics and other necessary
products for making garments. Now there is a huge
backlog,” Khaled said. “How will we survive?”
AP Asia Business Editor Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok.