China issues public thank you to foreign companies for earthquake aid (rebuffing shakedown efforts)

The Canadian Press ^ | May 22, 2008 | Wire service

[Zhang Fei]

China's commerce minister taken the unusual step of publicly thanking foreign companies for donating earthquake aid.

The minister, Chen Deming, issued his thank-you on national television, dismissing accusations spread on Chinese websites that foreign companies have been doing too little.

Chen says China has seen what he called "the greatest amount of donations from the international community ever in history."

He rejected as "totally unfounded" complaints posted on Chinese websites that foreign companies were "international misers."

Chen says that as of Thursday, foreign companies had donated $245 million in cash and $29 million in supplies, including food, tents and bottled water.

Companies including Nokia Corp., McDonald's Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Samsung Electronics Corp. began pledging money and supplies less than 24 hours after the May 12 quake hit Sichuan province.

Still, nationalistic Chinese accused foreign companies in Internet messages of failing to provide enough help and calling for boycotts of individual companies or a broader rejection of American and South Korean brands.

"Wake up, everyone. Support Chinese companies instead," said a posting on myspace.com's Chinese service, myspace.cn. "Money should stay in Chinese hands!"

Chen said his ministry might be to blame for the criticism.

"Maybe we haven't done sufficient publicity for these entities to thank them for their contributions," he said.

Companies say they have felt no effect from boycott calls.

"We feel very proud of what we've done. We've done a lot," said Thomas Jonsson, a spokesman for Nokia, which gave food, tents and mobile phones for rescuers. On Wednesday, it pledged an additional $5 million for reconstruction.

McDonald's Corp. said it has served more than 40,000 meals to quake survivors and rescue workers and pledged $1.5 million Wednesday to build new schools in quake areas.

"We've been involved in helping and responding since day one," said McDonald's spokeswoman Lisa Howard.

Comments posted on online bulletin boards also criticized Coca-Cola Cos., Yum Brands Inc.'s KFC restaurants, Toyota Motor Corp. and French retailer Carrefour SA.

Samsung said it was giving $4.3 million in cash, plus 5,000 emergency aid kits and 15,000 blankets. Coca-Cola gave 10,000 cases of bottled water and promised $720,000 in cash and supplies.

Chinese nationalists often have conflicted feelings toward foreign companies, which have helped to fuel the country's economic boom but are seen as rivals to local companies.

Carrefour stores in several Chinese cities were the target of small protests May 1 as critics vented their anger over disruption of the Olympic torch relay in Paris. Carrefour has pledged $150,000 and sent truckloads of food, water and tents to the disaster area.

Among other companies, Wal-Mart said it has given food, some 3,000 tents and other aid worth$430,000 and used its distribution network to move supplies to survivors.

"We are reacting very quickly in support," said Wal-Mart spokesman Jonathan Dong.

Dong noted that after China's devastating winter snowstorms, Wal-Mart also donated $1 million to the Chinese Red Cross for food and other aid in disaster areas.

Last week, Nokia gave 5,000 mobile phones to quake rescuers and sent employees into the disaster area to maintain them, Jonsson said.

"For us initially the most important thing was to get our relief effort going and once we had it going we could communicate about it, but some people were quick to think we weren't doing anything," he said.

"We've seen these criticisms going away and our efforts being better understood as the days go along."

[Zhang Fei]

Shakedown efforts by whom? Members of the esteemed Chinese public, of course (who must have taught Jesse Jackson all he knows about the art of the shakedown). Ironically, this is after the government set the tone by cranking up the xenophobia before a worshipful public during the Olympic torch and product defect incidents. Truly amusing. Maybe foreign direct investment is starting to slow.

[SMARTY]

The Chinese? saying ‘thank you’??? Maybe there’s hope for them, after al!

[Natural Law]

I lived through the ‘89 Loma Preita quake in the Bay Area and I don't recall seeing a damn dime of help from China or any Chinese companies.

[SMARTY]

Well, of course, silly! That's how it works don't you know? We (otherwise known as the ‘Great Satan’) help them in disasters, droughts, quakes, storm, famines, plagues, etc., ...- and they ignore OUR problems - all the while calling us ugly names! See??

[SMARTY]

Well, of course, silly! That's how it works don't you know? We (otherwise known as the ‘Great Satan’) help them in disasters, droughts, quakes, storm, famines, plagues, etc., ...- and they ignore OUR problems - all the while calling us ugly names! See??

[pandoraou812]

interesting

[indcons]

"Wake up, everyone. Support Chinese companies instead," said a posting on myspace.com's Chinese service, myspace.cn. "Money should stay in Chinese hands!"

The "free" traders are not going to be thrilled.

[12Gauge687]

Most Chinese in urban areas did not see any benefit from privatization until 2000. The rural areas inland still pretty much look like they did during the reign of Chairman Mao.

I don’t see how people can live with the congestion over there. The city of Shanghai must have 15 million people. Talk about 24 hour cities. Even when people couldn’t buy anything, people would be window shopping or just walking around at 3 AM. The Shanghai crowds make Tokyo’s rush hour look like a suburb. A month after I was there I was on a duck hunt; boy, what a difference!

[cmdjing]

A little bit early in the reform period. The communist party had more on it’s plate than a minor earthquake in San Francisco at the time. Like holding on to power while riding a wave of political protest against reform policies and economic turbulence.

China did donate about 5 million USD for Hurricane Katrina relief and Lenovo, a chinese company, donated another 2 million.

[Zhang Fei]

I don’t see how people can live with the congestion over there. The city of Shanghai must have 15 million people.

I don't see how it's all that crowded. Shanghai has 2.25 times the population of NYC but 9 times as much land. Chinese "cities" are conurbations rather than densely-populated cities in the American sense. The "city" of Chongqing is slightly less densely-populated than the *state* of New Jersey, home of an agricultural sector (fruits and vegetables) that produces just under a billion dollars in output annually. Chongqing is also five times the size of New Jersey. What too many don't understand is that China may have a large population, but it is also the largest country in Asia (if you leave out Russia).

[TigersEye]

Thank you for posting this. FR remains the least filtered place to get information and opinion on the net.

[Dasrafael]

Actually, it is not the people's fault since the CCP has brainwashed so many people by their lies. And the media are controlled by the CCP, so we are not able to know the truth.
For example, the CCP talked little about donations by the foreign countries but their so-called contribution was well polished.
However, thanks to the Internet,a growing number of Chinese begin to know the truth.

[zhcn]

"I don't recall seeing a damn dime of help from China or any Chinese companies."----China Gov. donated $ 5 million and Chinese Red Cross donated $100,000 for Hurricane Katrina relief. Maybe US Gov. and American Red Cross forgot telling you because US is a developed country and seldom needs donations of other countries. "That's how it works don't you know? We (otherwise known as the ‘Great Satan’) help them in disasters, droughts, quakes, storm, famines, plagues, etc., ...- and they ignore OUR problems - all the while calling us ugly names! See??"----Could you tell me some data about what you said? Do you know we call America in Chinese 美国(Meiguo)?--美 means beautiful 国 means nation. America in Japanese isアメリカ（transliteration）and in Korean is 미국(transliteration of 米國 Mikuk / Rice Nation). And do you know how many Top 500 Global corporations in China?--480 corporations. http://finance.huanqiu.com/wd/2008-05/112757.html American Gov. has donated more than $1 million for China disasters such as quakes、floods、SARS etc. since 2002 to 2005 and donated $100,000 for China floods on June, 2005 and donated $150,000 for China snow disaster on Jan. 2008 and donated $ 500,000 for Sichuan earthquake on May. http://news.sohu.com/20050621/n226028482.shtml 1. Please see posted 11#&17# http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017921/posts 2. Loma Prieta Earthquake of October 17, 1989（7.1 on the Richter scale）: 63 deaths, approximately 3,700 people were injured. Most injuries happened as a result of the collapse of the Cypress Street section of I-880 in Oakland. http://video.kingxue.com/player/?id=244 http://blog.sina.com.cn/wenjun8553 3.The East of Sichuan Earthquake of July, 1989: more than 800 deaths, More than 10,000 people were injured. http://www.cmabbs.com/redirect.php?tid=9065&goto=lastpost (1949-1990 China flood disaster events) 4. The death toll from this year's floods has continued to rise with 567 people now confirmed dead and a further 165 missing. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-06/25/content_3133493.htm 5. Floods and landslides have killed 1,247 people and left another 331 missing in China in the major flood season in 2005 and Official statistics indicate a total of 1,343 people died from floods or mudslides in the country last year. Since serious flooding of the Yangtze River in 1998, China has spent billions on flood mitigation. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-10/08/content_3591507.htm 6. 2475 Chinese died of natural disasters such as droughts、typhoon、floods、sand storms and lightning strikes in 2005. http://www.china.com.cn/zhuanti2005/txt/2006-11/14/content_7355493.htm (2005 China disasters report) 7. Around 1,279 Chinese died and 239 disappeared in natural disasters in the first seven months of 2007. More than 1,600 Chinese died of natural disasters in 2006. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/14/content_6532906.htm 8. Severe floods leave 1,203 dead last year in China http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/24/content_7490823.htm 9. China is a developing country and has disasters every year but we also try to help other countries because China is a member of UN. China Gov. has donated to 20 countries for natural disasters in 2005 included in Indian Ocean tsunami（RMB71.63 million +supplies valued at $20 million ）、American Hurricane Katrina($5 million+supplies)、Pakistan Earthquake(supplies valued at $26.73 million) etc. http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2006-01/06/content_4016770.htm 10. The expert at USGS said this Sichuan earthquake is even bigger than 1906 San Francisco earthquake and about 30 times more powerful than 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. (Beijing Time) May 22, 19:36 Deaths: 51,151; Injured: 288,431 http://www.ifgogo.com/ 11. The White House did offer $500,000 for the relief effort as well as supplies valued at $700,000. The American Red Cross has donated closer to $10 million, and United States businesses and private charities have offered still more, at least $12 million. The total has been more than 23 million. http://sports.sohu.com/20080519/n256947197.shtml Thanks for all American have done no matter praying or help.

[dick1004]

thank you!You just tell what I want to say.For so long I have been fooled,and now I want to know the truth,and I can,not merely through internet,but by our resolving power.
By the way,I am a Chinese,Forget my poor English,please!

[Dasrafael]

I forgot to tell you that I'm a Chinese as well.

The government has filled our countryman with blind love of our motherland(in fact, they taught us that the CCP equals to our country).

They use media(now they begin to use the Internet as well) to incite people to do radical things to meet their political needs. So I agree with your opinion that we should develop our resolving power.

[antonia]

I lived through the'89 Loma Preita quake in the Bay Area and I don't recall seeing a damn dime of help from China or any Chinese companies.

Giving, helping means doing so when someone else needs help. You don't wait an even exchange.You help the best that you can, as much as you are able. Grateful that you have been so blessed to be ale to help.

In 1989, we did not have anywhere near the dialogue with others who do not live near us. We had only the mass media to tell and show us what was going on.

Now everyone knows how to go online, post their videos, pictures and write about their experiences.

As the world gets smaller, let us not look to the past, let's look to the future.

With the newfound ability to talk to so many people living in so many different places, let's focus on what we have in common, like the love of our families, neighborhoods, countries and the world.

We can make the future something in which we can all be proud of, so that our children can look back on the history which we made, together, and be very proud of us leaving them a world with so many good friends and family, and in which they may all live in peace, freedom, love,joy, and plenty.