Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer. Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

The passenger aircraft division of Boeing has been deeply troubled since the grounding of its fleet of 737 Max Planes.

The company's huge Space and Defense Division used to carry it through hard times, but it too is losing altitude.

And Democratic contenders will be standing tall at tonight's debate, some taller than others.

We take a look at why height, whether perceived or real, has such a strong effect on politicians' prospects. But first...

China's government has gone to extraordinary lengths to limit the spread of the coronavirus,

and the new infection rate does seem to be falling.

But more than 75,000 people are now believed to have been infected by the virus.

More than 2,000 have died.

Controls on the movement of people are strictly enforced.

This week, authorities even went as far as disinfecting money.

Businesses are restricting office hours or being forced to close altogether indefinitely.

But one of the untold stories of China's tight controls is about their effects on migrant workers,

who last month made an annual trek from the cities to their home villages for the Spring Festival and are still there.

So we've seen a lot of national statistics about sort of idle factories and suspended supply

chains because a lot of migrant workers can't get back to the big cities where they work.

David Rennie is the economist's Beijing bureau chief, himself now under quarantine in the country's

capital.

I thought it was worth talking to individuals who are actually going through that, stuck in the villages where they went home for Chinese New Year, where they would normally stay about two

weeks, but in some cases they'd been stuck kind of six weeks without any income.

And how does that work?

So it seemed to me I should go to a village.

...