The Epoch Times interviewed a Wuhan resident trapped at home for 40 days. Aid is not available. With two young children, money is running out, and the door has been nailed shut from outside, despite the fact that they are not infected.
Below is a transcript of part 3 of the interview:
Mr. Pan: Now it is about how to survive. … Zhong Nanshan said to lock down the city. He said Wuhan is a city of heroes. There is no living hero in China. But the 10 million living Wuhan people are now heroes. He did not think of the humanitarian disaster caused by the closure, he never even considered these issues. … How can I trust him? How can you trust the government? The government has a lot of weapons in its hands—the dictatorship holds the iron fist. With its tiny finger, I am crushed.
Journalist: Strict web blockade seems to start on March 1.
Mr. Pan: I went downstairs today. Both front and back doors are nailed shut. All passages have been sealed.
Journalist: You cannot talk online, right? The Cyberspace Office imposed the most stringent new rules.
Mr. Pan: What can I say online? I have said it all. What I am talking about now, I have said already on the Internet. This is a very simple truth. I am the one beaten by a cane. It hurts. Those online spectators in the chat room don’t get hit by the cane. Would they feel the hurt? No. They just tell me to hang in there, keep fighting. Regarding these comments, I feel disgusted. What’s there to support me? Where do I get the strength to keep fighting?
Mr. Pan: In another 3 or 4 days, I may not even be able to turn the light on. I am running out of money. The electricity will get cut off without money. I called the mayor and explained the February bill will be delayed. I asked them to extend the electricity. This is a cruel fact.
Mr. Pan: I am almost running out of rice. It will last for about 3 or 4 days. The vegetables will be gone in a day or two. What should I do? Eat porridge every day. What about my children? We have to survive.
Mr. Pan: Now if I go out, the police will catch me and beat me up. There have been too many videos showing things like this.
Mr. Pan: I have no cash on hand. What can I do even if I go out? Force others to give me some rice and vegetables? People might think that I could be infected with the virus. Isn’t that so? Where can I go to make a living?
Mr. Pan: The purpose of going out is to get some food. Without money, who do I ask?
Mr. Pan: As for being a beggar, I could stand there, under normal circumstances, if the society is not on lockdown, there’ll be people around. I could sit on the side of the street, holding a bowl, and people would give a dollar or two.
Mr. Pan: There is no place for a beggar now.
Mr. Pan: The situation is very bad now, it’s hell now. I don’t know if there is anything worse than this. If it was a war, I could leave or run away. Now there is no place to go.
Journalist: Some people in other provinces are saying that the situation has changed now—got to trust the government, etc. What do you think?
Mr. Pan: How can you trust the government? He who works for the government must trust his boss. This is a very simple logic. The person who says this is fed by the government. That’s his job. He believes it. He sticks up for it. That is normal.
Mr. Pan: We don’t have a fixed job, we work on temp. I don’t have a fixed income, I am unemployed.
Mr. Pan: There are both old and young at home to feed. So, people who work for the government would say it’s all good. I definitely wouldn’t be crazy enough to say that. There is a saying that a mother is the one who nurses you. I have not been cared for. Where is this mother? Nothing has been provided for me, and if I still honor the government, I must be crazy.
Journalist: It’s said to return to work, isn’t it?
Mr. Pan: I’m a part-time worker. I haven’t heard of anyone asking me to work a part-time job. I called my boss. The boss didn’t answer the phone. He probably went bankrupt. That was my temporary boss. I made some calls to other bosses. They said, “What you want to do now is try and stay alive. How can there be things to do? There’s none!”
Mr. Pan: I was once a boss, self-employed. If I was a penny short of taxes, the tax bureau will get you. You can’t pay less. If there’s a problem with the money, you’ve got to resolve it yourself. Or you could run away. But there’s nowhere to go. Those bosses have nowhere to go. They can’t even get out of their compound.
Journalist: Now the residents in Wuhan are locked up at home and can’t do anything. Is food still from online buying?
Mr. Pan: Cucumbers are 6 yuan ($0.86) each. Can you afford that? Eggplants are 7 yuan ($1.00) each.
Mr. Pan: I have said it all. What’s next? Honestly, I can only count my days.
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Part 1 of the interview – CLICK HERE
Part 2 of the interview – CLICK HERE
