CIG interviewed by Radio Lac on Covid-19

Links For listening 

February 20, 2020, at 10:00, CIG directors Mrs. Zhimin SUN and Mrs. Jun CHU were interviewed by Radio Lac, an official radio station in French-speaking Switzerland, on subjects of the response and situation of Chinese people in Switzerland since the outbreak of pneumonia epidemic caused by the novel coronavirus. 

Mrs. Sun and Mrs. Chu met with the director of Radio Lac, Mr. Philippe Verdier, and the host, Ms. Manon Christen. They had an introduction and communication section before entering into the recording studio. We extend our thanks to Radio Lac for providing us this opportunity to express our feelings. 

Ms. Christen invited Mrs. Sun to introduce the establishment time and institutional nature of CIG, a politically and religiously neutral non-profit institution, and the work that CIG has been doing since the outbreak. 

First of all, facing the severe shortage of medical supplies in China, on 27th January CIG urgently purchased two batches of medical face masks totaling 21,000 in Geneva. The CIG team raced against time, and managed to go through all procedures on 31st January, within just 5 days, including ordering, signing donation agreements, packaging, labeling, customs declarations, consignment, customs clearance etc. During this period, CIG has received big support from the Chinese Embassy in Switzerland and Air China Geneva office. We thank them sincerely. Since 1st February, Air China has been the only airline which keeps 3 flights per week between Geneva and Beijing. Other airlines suspended their flights for this route one after another. 21,000 masks successfully arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport on 4th February, and were donated to Beijing Shijingshan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital and Beijing Huairou Hospital via Beijing Returned Overseas Chinese Federation (Beijing Overseas Chinese Foundation) and Chinese Language and Culture Education Foundation of China.

Secondly, Ms. Christen raised the question about how the Chinese people in Switzerland, especially those in Geneva, keep in contact with their families back in China, what kind of spiritual comfort and material support they could provide them. Mrs. Sun responded, CIG teachers all come from China. Everyone could use Wechat and other chat apps to keep close contact with domestic families, friends and relatives, they share voice, text, photos and videos. Every day, we receive real-time updates on the epidemic situation from Chinese government. We have a teacher from Wuhan, whose parents and families are currently in Wuhan city. She can always get in touch with them via internet. As far as we know, there is no shortage of food and daily necessities. It is true that masks are difficult to buy because priorities are given to frontline medical staff and patients. Although many countries suspended postal delivery to China, our CIG teachers still found their own way to deliver masks and other related items to domestic families. 

Thirdly, Ms. Christen asked whether the Chinese in Switzerland have met any discriminations due to the epidemic. Mrs. Sun replied, Switzerland has always been a multicultural country with tolerance. Local media also updates report about China's epidemic. We believe that most people in Switzerland could maintain a rational and objective attitude on this matter. Of course, there are particular cases. For example, a Chinese family, who has always been living in Geneva, reported that after the epidemic occurred, their child was rejected by the local kindergarten, who insisted that they were afraid of the coronavirus being transmitted to other children. They did not even ask this Chinese family, whether they went back to China recently or whether they have any relatives coming from China in the past two weeks. Also, some Chinese primary school students said that their classmates pointed to them in school, laughing about the “Chinese virus” instead of using the correct name coronavirus. When dining at school, there was also someone who claimed not to seat at the same table with Chinese students. These individual cases cause psychological harm to our children. After all, young children do not have self-protection awareness and ability like adults. We also hope that through this interview, the Swiss media could present a fair, objective and reasonable explanation and report. The Chinese people in Switzerland are very united. Many Chinese and overseas Chinese associations have voluntarily organized donations as soon as possible to Wuhan and other hometowns like Beijing, Zhejiang, Fujian etc. At the same time, we keep an optimistic attitude. Some CIG parents run Chinese restaurants. It is obvious that nowadays there are much less tourists visiting, but they show confidence that it will only be temporary. 

Finally, Ms. Christen asked what did CIG do in addition to donating masks. Mrs. Sun replied that since the outbreak occurred during the Chinese New Year, we do have teachers, students and parents travelling back to China, and some domestic relatives came to Switzerland for visit. In order to minimize the risk of possible spread, CIG decided to suspend classes temporarily from 1st to 25thFebruary in the three campuses of Geneva, Nyon and Lausanne. However, following the principle of “suspending classes without stopping learning”, CIG teachers still email learning content and multimedia links to students from time to time, meanwhile keep answering questions from students and parents in a timely manner, so that our students can continue to study Chinese at home.

Just before the end of the recording, Mrs. Sun once again call on the Swiss media to report truthfully, objectively and accurately. This epidemic has already caused a significant negative impact on China's economy and will inevitably affect the world economy. We should admit that Chinese people and China have made huge sacrifices to fight against Covid-19 and to stop the virus spreading. They deserve our respect and understanding. We also take this opportunity to pay tribute to Chinese people and government, and to express our condolences, care and resolve to work together to overcome the difficulties.