Chinese factories are struggling to resume full operations amid virus-induced travel disruptions and safety measures. The situation in Wenzhou, a trade entrepot for centuries and now a major producer of much of the world's shoes, eyeglasses and clothing, reflects the slow progress in fully reviving China's economy, the world's second-largest and an indispensable lynchpin of global growth.
But China's coronavirus epidemic has changed all that. Only about one-third of the roughly 1,000-strong workforce at Xuda's factory in the eastern export hub of Wenzhou are around, the rest blocked by virus-induced travel disruptions and safety measures.