- On the eve of the Wuhan coronavirus shutdown (January 2020), China’s largest retailer Alibaba only had 46.1 million masks available for 1 billion people.
- In response, Chinese civic organizations instructed citizens worldwide to buy and send protective gear back home.
- By late February, China’s 60 million nationals abroad sent 2 billion masks back home.
- This mass-buying contributed to the global protective gear shortage at the onset of the epidemic.
- China’s Communist Party has prided itself on having a worldwide diaspora for help in crisis.
