Alex Finer, 21, came home last month for a break from his studies, so he managed to avoid making a frantic scramble to leave as the rest of the world seals itself off from the fast-moving virus.
Mr Finer believes that if any country can control the outbreak, it is China.
‘Normally mass surveillance is criticised and obviously it impacts on individual rights and private property, but in terms of finding infected people, this surveillance system did a very efficient job of finding everyone who was in contact with the infected people.
‘Everything is centralised so they can see where people made a train booking or a bus booking, it all relates back to the central system, so it’s not for me to criticise the system, but in this case it was useful.’
The Exeter University student had been studying economics at Tsinghua University in Beijing on an exchange programme, and learning Mandarin in his spare time.
He came back to Guernsey on 11 January so he is long out of the infection incubation period, but he still gets people asking him if he is contagious.
Mr Finer admits that he is relieved not to have to wear a face mask all the time, and he hopes that collaboration with other countries will beat the virus.
‘The Chinese government want political stability because that relates to economic stability.
‘They read the BBC and when they see how we’re talking about the coronavirus it doesn’t look good for them, and they particularly like to look quite successful, they really want to keep face, they are very appearance-driven.’
The message he has been getting from his Chinese friends and colleagues is ‘keep calm and corona on’, in other words do not panic.
For now Mr Finer’s education plans have been thrown into disarray because it is likely it will be months before he is allowed to return.
‘My hope is that I will eventually go back in the summer, and in the meantime I want to find a firm that would allow me to research or apply some of my understanding from China here in Guernsey so I’m actually using what I know in practice.’
At least 427 deaths had been recorded in connection with the virus and there have been more than 20,000 confirmed cases reported worldwide.
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