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Where is the China Earthquake Donation Money Going?
Written by Robert Vance on May 29, 2008 – 10:24 am“I don’t think that the donations are getting to the earthquake victims,” a friend of mine somberly told me recently. “A few of my friends came back from Mianyang recently,” he explained, “and they told me that the earthquake survivors were not being given enough food and water.” It was feared, he said, that the much of the money was being pocketed by local officials or being used to fund activities that were unrelated to the tragedy in Sichuan.
Many of my friends in China are expressing similar fears about how the massive donations collected by the Chinese government are being used in Sichuan Province. These concerns have prompted some Chinese people not to give directly to the government. Instead, they have donated money to charitable organizations or even foreign relief groups that have been involved in assisting the survivors. While still not knowing exactly how their money will be used, many of my students seem to be more hopeful that these NGOs will use the money wisely.
My friends and students do not mistrust the Chinese government. To the contrary, most of them are “deeply touched” by Beijing’s swift response to the natural disaster. Wen JiaBao, the Premier of China who gave directions to the rescuers and spoke comforting words to the survivors, has become an international political star. His profile was recently featured on the social networking site Facebook where he has attracted thousands of fans. The Chairman of China, Hu JinTao, has also been lauded here and internationally for accepting foreign as well as allowing the media to provide a more accurate portrayal of the events in Sichuan. If Chairman Hu or Premier Wen were taking the donations directly to the survivors in Sichuan, I am confident that all of my friends would have given their money directly to the government.
Unfortunately, Beijing only has had a grip on the money donations for a very short time if anytime at all. Most of money ends up with the local governments which are notoriously corrupt in China. My friends and students tell me that money from Beijing that is earmarked for projects is often spent instead on fancy dinner and expensive hotel rooms. One lady told me recently that 40,000,000 RMB was sent to her province to finance the construction of a new highway. By the time that the project officially began, only 40,000 RMB remained; the money had been reduced 10 times. According to my friend, such stories are not uncommon in China.
While some of my friends and students hope that the urgency and desperation of this tragedy will cut through the usual corruption, most are not optimistic. One student even told me that he knew his donation would probably not arrive in the earthquake stricken region but that he gave to the government anyway “just to feel like he was doing something.” Other students had told me that they had heard stories of government officials taking the best tents and other supplies that were being shipped into the region.
Thankfully, Beijing has already punished some local officials for “mishandling” the earthquake rescue efforts. Hopefully, the central government can use this opportunity to send a clear message to the officials in Sichuan and in other provinces that misusing public funds is a serious offense. In the meantime, at least the NGOs who are involved can provide some real assistance to people and fill in for where the government is lacking. Perhaps Beijing’s best move in the aftermath of this earthquake was to call for and accept foreign aid. Many lives were probably saved as a result of this decision.
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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/27/content_8262142.htm
[...] Where is the China Earthquake Donation Money Going? By Robert Vance The China Teaching Web May 29, 2008 “I don’t think that the donations are getting to the earthquake victims,” a friend of mine somberly told me recently. “A few of my friends came back from Mianyang recently,” he explained, “and they told me that the earthquake survivors were not being given enough food and water.” It was feared, he said, that the much of the money was being pocketed by local officials or being used to fund activities that were unrelated to the tragedy in Sichuan. [...]
The Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuary, a cherished World Heritage site and home to 30% of the world’s remaining pandas, was damaged by the quake. Friends of World Heritage (a grassroots initiative created by the United Nations Foundation with Expedia, Inc. and UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre) has launched a campaign to aid relief efforts.
To learn more, please visit https://secure.globalproblems-globalsolutions.org/site/Donation2?idb=922467088&df_id=1160&1160.donation=form1&JServSessionIdr006=rxcaaac41f.app5b
100% of donations go directly to those in need.
i feel so pity with a situation at china right now… i hope all china citizen and world helps among them to give their more support to claim live again..
[...] Gorges Dam, is the ongoing problem of corruption in China. As I wrote in another post recently, corruption has already ‘reared its ugly head’ in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake. Reports are coming out of the affected regions that the [...]
I think it is very bad to undermind the government’s effort to help the earthquake victims by making accusation based on rumors or isolated cases of corruption.
One must understand the situation in the earthquake zone.
@Yugung,
If you gave money to the government, good for you; I hope it gets to Sichuan. Most of my Chinese friends told me that they chose NOT to give money to the government because of the corruption that exists at the local levels. I think many Chinese people would beg to differ with you when you state that the accusation of corruption is based on “rumors or isolated cases.” And what why must we “understand the situation in the earthquake zone?” Is the desperate situation there somehow an excuse for corruption? Please clarify.
I think it is very bad to undermind the government’s effort to help the earthquake victims by making accusation based on rumors or isolated cases of corruption.
If the government really wants to help the earthquake victims, nothing can stop it from doing so. It has $1.7T in foreign exchange reserves (this money belongs to the people, of course, not government officials) it can use. Donations are more a gesture of solidarity than anything else.
As to rumors and so on, that’s what you get when the government gets to arrest journalists and close down newspapers that report news it doesn’t like. The function of rumors and hearsay is to put so much pressure on the government that it eventually has to investigate corruption within its ranks. But the truth is that the central government can’t really look too closely at these things - otherwise, the falsity of the benevolent central government/crooked local government facade might become apparent for all to see. The reality might be that they are all crooked, and the central government appoints local government grandees to facilitate its corruption. (Note that the executed ex-Chinese FDA head wasn’t a local government official).
[...] corruption in a country that is in dire need of such measures. As I wrote about in a post entitled Where is the China Earthquake Donation Money Going?, rampant corruption in China leads to the loss of millions of dollars every year that are [...]