IN response to your correspondent Jeremy Fawcett (The Yorkshire Post, February 14), let me furnish you with some of my experiences from life in Nanjing for comparison.

Nobody is waving flags or shaking fists. All residential streets (i.e. non thoroughfares) have fencing and a small tent at the head of the road, where individuals, who appear to be civilian volunteers, check the ID and, in some cases, temperature of the people entering.

Yorkshire ex-pat reveals how coronavirus has changed life in China: Yorkshire Post Letters

There have been nine confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK to date. Photo: Steve Parsons/PA Wire

I have no information as to the efficacy of such measures, but note that these individuals are often visibly elderly.

Surely it is admirable that the very group at elevated risk in this crisis are taking the risks to play their part?

If I had to describe the public’s response to the coronavirus crisis in a word it would be “sensible”.

Public lavatories are not, and have not, been “horrendous” in Nanjing, nor anywhere else I visited in China.

People wearing masks in China Town, London. Photo: Victoria Jones/PA Wire

On the contrary, I find them numerous (much more so than in the UK!) and normally providing soap, toilet paper, hot water and hand dryers.

Squat toilets probably are horrendous if you ‘miss’ but I have so far only known one person to suffer that indignity.

With regards to “dirty habits” and “unhygienic habits ingrained in their culture”, I think it utterly false and unbalanced to accuse the Chinese people of such shortcomings.

While spitting in the streets can fairly be described as frequent, it is scarcely a rare sight in the UK, and I beg to differ: the uniform wearing of masks has done nothing to stop spitting (or indeed smoking).

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Is it not deeply irresponsible to make such comments at a time when Chinese individuals are reportedly facing harassment and isolation in Western countries, on a mere association that they could have the virus?

In the end, Mr Fawcett has apparently remained in China for 12 years despite his numerous misgivings.

China is widely accepted to be the “Future of the world” and personally I would prefer to stay and take the risk that N-Cov-19 allows me only a very short future, than return to the United Kingdom.

I think I detect an element of glee in some newspapers that China is being hit by this disaster. They won’t be laughing in 10 years.

Why I would rather stay in China despite coronavirus than return to the UK - Yorkshire Post Letters