The recent suicide of four left-behind children in Guizhou province has alarmed many long-distance parents, some of whom may not have seen their children for years.
Liu felt sorry for his own children. "I cannot be a selfish father. I must take responsibility for my children," he said.
A FLICKERING FLAME
Liu Xue, on the other hand, went back to home to make money.
Nearing his 50s and from Suzhou in east China's Anhui Province, Liu Xue is now owner of several textile plants and employs over 300 local people.
He went home in 2008, when Suzhou began to support startups with tax exemptions, reduced administration fees and small loans.
Suzhou has 26 business incubation parks for returned migrant workers with 76 companies employing more than 9,000 people.
Migrant workers used to be attracted to labor-intensive industries in China's coastal regions like moths to a flame. Today, with rising costs and the need for industrial upgrades, the flame is flickering.
Guangdong Province, for example, announced in March that industries like automaking, textiles and construction material manufacture would be encouraged to make more use of robots on their production lines.
In Henan, the proportion of local rural people working outside the province dropped from 43.6 percent in 2013 to 39 percent last year, whereas the percentage of those working in their home counties and cities rose from 30.3 to 38.1.
A SHINING LIGHT
These returnees are not content to simply pick up their hoes and return to the fields. Many have come back to change their hometowns for the better.
Wang Fei, 31,gave up factory work in Suzhou and returned to Henan in 2004. He is now the proud owner of a busy farm and poultry house.
While he enjoys an annual profit of 300,000 yuan, his farm and poultry house are now the practice base of a local agricultural college. Each year students, many of them returned migrants themselves, go there to learn from his experiences, as part of government training for home-comers.
Talking about the new State Council policies, Liu Yongzhen, Liu Xue and Wang are in agreement that they will help migrant workers to return to their roots without suffering financially as a result.
"Local authorities should be prepared to support more and more migrant workers returning," said Liu Xue in Anhui.
His opinion is shared by Wang Kaiyu, sociologist in Anhui who has been working on rural issues for years. "Local governments must improve schooling and medical care, so that those who wish to come home really can stay."
