Stay or go? Tough call for Chinese in Italy as coronavirus crisis hits

Thousands of migrants from China’s eastern seaboard are questioning their future in the euro zone’s third-biggest economy as Covid-19 takes hold

Business is taking a battering and some wonder if they are welcome

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Business in Italy has taken a hit from the coronavirus. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 5:55pm, 6 Mar 2020Updated: 10:44pm, 6 Mar 2020

Wenzhou and Rome may be 9,300km (5,800 miles) apart but public anxiety about the coronavirus is the same in both places.

This is especially true for the thousands of businesspeople from the eastern Chinese coastal city, who have moved to the Italian capital in the last few decades and established one of the biggest Chinese communities in the country.

About 100,000 people from Wenzhou, and another 100,000 from nearby Qingtian county, live in Italy, according to official Chinese data, with Milan also hosting a sizable Chinese community.

But many are considering their short and long-term future as Italy reels from the coronavirus epidemic, which has killed more than 100 people and infected roughly 3,100 in the European country.

Wu Yue, a businessman from Fujian province who has lived in Rome for 20 years, said many Chinese in Italy were anxious and wondering if they should return home.

“We definitely feel safer in China. The government is more efficient … Hospitals here can treat patients well, but the government’s ability to respond to an emergency is not ideal,” Wu said.