Thanks for your comments. I think your English is improving.

Actually, you did not answer my question. Everyone knows that the Chinese government donated 5 million dollars to the U.S. in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We appreciate that. I cannot speak for why my government has not given more the earthquake victims other than to say that the money they have given so far may just be an initial pledge. More may be coming depending on the need. You also need to remember that the U.S. had already pledged a lot of money to Mynamar recovery effort so some funds were tied up in that.

However, I was specifically asking about how much money the Chinese people and Chinese companies donated to Katrina. Donations by people and companies are truly representative of how a nation feels about another country, not what our government does. To be frank, I could only really find information about one company in China that made any substantial donation to Katrina. That was Lenovo (a partner of the US IBM company) which reportedly donated 2 million dollars. I could not find any information about contributions given to the U.S. from the Chinese people. I’m sure there was some, but apparently not really enough to show up on the radar. Should America then condemn China because its people and companies didn’t give very much in Katrina?

Forget about the American government for a moment. Governments have their own reasons for how much money they do or do not donate. If you focus on the donations of the American people you can see our true hearts. We do care about the people who are suffering in Sichuan. The earthquake in our minds goes far beyond politics. Stop trying to equate our government’s donations with the American people’s feelings about the earthquake.

As to your statement that “But one thing is clear ,you are not believe our government, you afraid your money can not reach earthquake area”… have you talked to your own people about this? Please read another post that I wrote called http://www.teachabroadchina.com/china-earthquake-donation-money/ in which I talked about the mistrust that many CHINESE people have of their own government. Many of my friends here in China did NOT give money to the government because they were afraid that the money would not reach the earthquake area. Criticize them first before you criticize me for simply echoing what many Chinese people are saying.

First, I think that the figures that you provide are still way off. You are assuming that all of the donations given to the earthquake relief effort by the American people were made through the American Red Cross. That’s a false assumption. I gave money to the relief efforts but not to your government or through the Red Cross. I gave my money through another charitable organization which was on the ground in Sichuan assisting the survivors. Yes, the Red Cross did provide 10 million dollars in aid but millions more were donated through other charitable organizations by the American People. There is no exact figures on how much the American public has donated but it is certainly more than you think.

You also make another error when you list monetary donations given by the US to the Tsunami relief effort. You make it sound as if the US gave all of that money to Indonesia alone. Again, not true! Did you forget that the Tsunami occurred in multiple countries, not just Indonesia? The US donations were earmarked for a few countries, not just one. Of course you would expect us to give less to one country!

By the way, how much money did Chinese companies and people give to the US during Hurricane Katrina? Have you ever checked up on that? That was one of the biggest disasters in US history. I didn’t hear anybody complaining about the lack of help from the Chinese people and companies during that disaster.

Americans know that no matter what we do, we are always going to be criticized by the Chinese. But we still give because we care about people who are suffering and who need help. Instead of comparing how much we gave to you with how much we gave in the Tsunami, could you stop for one second and be happy for the help? Your attitude is what makes Americans even less willing to give.

I was not criticizing the Three Gorges Dam Project. I have criticized it before but not in this post. I was simply pointing out that it is hard to believe that the Chinese government doesn’t have enough money to help its own people. I think you should read my post more carefully.

current figures are not clear,but from these figures(China government officially published) you surely can see something:
all of donation from our country and other country current is 52,478,000,000 China Yuan(about 7,496,860,000$)
all of donation from foreign related enterprise(include jointly-funded enterprise and enterprise of TaiWan ,Hongkong, Macao) : 3,776,000,000 Chian Yuan(about 539,429,000$),thank to Mircrosoft and CoCaCola and other US enterprise,but do you think this is all from US?

I surely thank all the donators, but does the US be the strongest and democracy country in the world? why you always us political eye to look at our people?
Most of our country people not wealthy to afford car,computer, someone still could not afford their food if our government do not help them.but our government is in difficulty now! 8.0 degree earthquake, is it not a big disaster?

The Three Gorges Dam is huge projects, and it need a lot of money indeed, but it can be a benefical projects if it succeed,it may produce large amout of clean electric energy,and it can reduce flood disater of Changjiang river. Don’t say it is true or wrong to begin the projects, just look that we afford about twenty years effort, and next year the projects will complete , do you still think it should be stop right now?

If you surely want to help our people, please not say that. please just stand on our point to look things!

Thank you for your comments. I’m glad that you took the time to participate.

I have heard many Chinese people condemn the United States government for giving too little to the relief efforts. Actually, I am not sure if your figures are quite accurate if you include the non-monetary support that the U.S. provided in the form of aircraft and supplies. But even if those figures are true, you are discounting the donations of the American people. Forget about our government for a moment. Do you have any figures on the amount of money that was given by the American people to the earthquake relief effort? I bet it’s a lot of money…look into that first before you talk about how stingy the Americans are!

NPR has done extensive reporting from China this last month….projects that were already in progress before the earthquake…..Melissa Block and Robert Seigal just happened to be in Sichuan province when the earthquake occurred…so theyve doen quite a lot of extra work reporting………..