China. Take your US dollars and help your people

I truly searched to see if this had been discussed. I couldn’t find anything.

China has about 20K zillion US dollars. They could buy the world, if they wanted,

So, they have a quake, have citizens distressed, huge problem. Why can’t they respond to this? Why can’t they do this, instead of letting the rest of the world come to their rescue? This is stupid.

Step up into the First World.

  • It’s possible I haven’t searched for, nor read, what they’re doing on their own behalf. If I missed it, I’m sorry.

Um - you haven’t searched for information on efforts they’re making to respond to the earthquake, but you’re still pitting them for not making any?

Colour me :confused: .

Other countries have offered help. Of course they’re accepting it. What would we be saying about them if they didn’t?*

In the meantime, they seem to also be pursuing vigorous efforts to rescue as many people as they can on their own. Who says they’re not?

*answer: the same thing we’re saying about those bastards in Myanmar, obviously.

Samclem, you might want to just admit you had a brain fart of epic proportions, and then email a mod to have this thread closed.

Maybe, you’re kinda confusing Maoist China with the China of today. I can understand how that’s easy to do. Or maybe confusing Maoist China and modern Myanmar, and they are neighbors at least.

In reality, the 20k Zillion dollars is really about $200B (maybe it’s up to $300B, I don’t remember) in foreign reserves. It’s not that hard to look up. And since China has more than a billion people, that’s about $200/person.

According to Bloomberg: Just 5 percent of the more than $20 billion of damage from the quake in Sichuan province is covered by insurance, according to estimates from an official at the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

China has mobilized 120,000 troops into the earthquake zone. The majority of the earthquake zone is in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Area, which is an impoverished and extremely rugged mountainous area that makes the Appallacia (sp?) look wealthy and flat. Most areas hit by the quake are reachable only via helicopter or on foot since *all * the roads have been wiped out.

Wen Jiabo, the Chinese Premier, was in the earthquake zone IIRC that same evening (quake was at 2:33 pm local time). Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived on Thursday (Friday?). [How long did it take the FEMA chief to go to NO?]

Unsubstantiated reports put the civilian volunteers at least as many as the troops. I’ve seen the outpouring of civilian aid in Shanghai - from medical personel traveling to the zone, volunteers collecting donations, blood drives, etc.

The amount of money raised within China keeps rising. IIRC the last news I saw was about $400M in donations. The multinational I work for in China has about 1,500 employees. Local employee contributions were over $200k in 72 hours, which was matched by corporate. Corporate also kicked in some additional cash.

The Chinese government has earmarked aid, and keeps raising the amount. Not up to a billion yet but will be. and that doesn’t count the actual cost of the relief effort going on as I type this.

…and two chicks at the same time, no doubt. :rolleyes:

I, too, am confused… Everything I have heard and read has implied that the government’s reaction has been admirable, if spontaneous. Meaning they have acted quickly and have spared no expense, but obviously did not have much in the way of contingency plans for this type of disaster. I have seen a lot of sites that have compared their reaction to NO and Katrina, showing a stark difference that, frankly, leaves me embarrassed of my government…

Here’s a simple overview that’s on the front page of MSN: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24675108

Among other things, it confirms that Premier Wen Jiabao flew to the disaster zone Monday afternoon. Quake hit at 2:33 pm, and the number 2 leader of China flew the thousand miles and arrived that same day.

Every other major on line news agency or portal, be it Reuters, NY Times, Yahoo! etc, *all * still have lead stories on the quake and aftermath.

So I guess that’s an email to himself.

Urp. You are all probably correct. I think I had just not read enough about what China was doing(until tonight), and probably was pissed enough at Burma for what they’re not doing.

Thanks to all who set me straight.

You know what–after listening to some voices* in my head, I’ll leave this open. It’s not up to me to close it. And I really don’t care whether it gets closed or not.

*see, you do have an impact. But you’re still ignorant fucks. Just saying…

China would probably save more lives if it started bringing Health and Safety practices into the work place plus even a token effort to attempt to limit enviromental pollution.

But that would cut into the profits wouldn’t it?

And raise prices. A lot in the west would not like that. It’s gonna happen eventually but till then there’s money to be made so fuck’em*

  • not my opinion BTW.

While we are harping on the Chinese…

If they are going to be the Next Great Power, could they get off their butts and do something about Myanmar?

China has historically maintained a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries. I believe that task should be up to the United States. Since Burma is rich in oil, and many foreign firms have significant oil-related investments there, it should be an easy sell to the American people.