China uses dairy factory to show it's getting back to work

BEIJING (AP) — As milk bottles and yogurt six-packs zipped past on a conveyor belt at a state-owned dairy, reporters heard a sales pitch from a Communist Party official: China Inc. has reopened for business.

The government invited reporters to a Beijing factory of China Mengniu Dairy Co. Ltd. this week to see how companies are getting back to work after unprecedented anti-virus measures shut down much of the world's second-biggest economy. It also brought them to see a power plant.

The ruling party is striving to restore public and business confidence and avert a deeper economic downturn and politically risky job losses after weeks of disruptions due to the viral outbreak that has sickened more than 82,000 people worldwide and killed more than 2,800.

Mengniu's sales fell 20% in February due to travel and other anti-disease controls, but its sales of milk, yoghurt and other dairy products are back to 80% of normal levels and production is at 70%, said Meng Fanjie, of Mengniu's Party Work Department.

"Also there is an opportunity brought by the virus outbreak," he said. “People want to improve immunity by eating more dairy.”

The effort to get the economy back on track comes as anxiety is mounting that the spread of the new virus overseas might derail global trade, industry and economic growth. Forecasters expect the economy to slow in the current quarter, though though officials insist the ruling Communist Party's annual growth targets still can be attained.

The most sweeping anti-disease controls ever imposed suspended most access to Wuhan, a major city at the center of the outbreak, and extended the Lunar New Year holiday, usually just a week or two long for most people, to keep factories and offices closed.

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