'Stay strong, India': Chinese companies work overtime to help

STAY STRONG, INDIA

A video footage the Chinese ambassador posted on social media earlier this week showed Chinese companies, including the Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma, were producing and packing medical equipment for India.

On May 2, Fosun's first batch of donated medical protective supplies, 100,000 masks, arrived in Mumbai, western India. The company told Xinhua on Friday that 150 ventilators donated by Fosun Pharma's subsidiary Gland Pharma were to be delivered to Hyderabad in central India. More than 20,000 oxygen generators are also to be provided soon.

In the video footage, a group of Fosun staff shouted: "Stay strong, India."

Guo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun International, said on his social media account: "today .. .countries have extensive converging interests and are mutually dependent. Together let's join hands to fight the pandemic."

Fosun Pharma is not the only Chinese company that provides medical equipment for India.

Sun Weidong also shared another video clip, in which workers of a Chinese oxygen generator manufacturer, the Zhengzhou Olive Electronic Technology Co. Ltd, were bustling in the factory, producing and packing the machines during the May Day holiday.

According to Qu Yunping, sales manager of the company, they received orders from India at the end of April. A total of 18,000 oxygen generators were needed. Zhengzhou Olive added another production line and workers, operating overtime against its current daily production capacity of 700 to meet the need.

Ms An Junhong was in charge of quality supervision in the factory, who only took four days off after the Spring Festival in February.

"We have so many orders from overseas," she told Xinhua, adding they work from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m each day.

Talking about India, the 40-year-old woman said she learned about the COVID-19 situation there by browsing on her mobile phone.

"My friends and I also shared information about India with each other on WeChat," she said. "I know how severe it is."

"So it is not just about doing our job," she said. "It is a matter of life and death. I think we help saving lives."

Along with the equipment, there is a message that she would like to convey to the Indian people: "take good care of yourself, take protective measures and hopefully you could bring the pandemic under control soon."