BEIJING – It is common diplomatic practice: a national government gives aid to a country or cause outside its borders. But when the Chinese government decided to donate 23 school buses to Macedonia, all hell broke loose in China, filling the Chinese blogosphere with waves of indignation.
By now, someone should have seen this coming. The issue of foreign aid has begun to anger ordinary Chinese, who are increasingly vocal about the government not taking care of those at home first. But this particular case happens to come just three weeks after an accident where 19 kindergarten children and two of their teachers died in a hopelessly overloaded school bus in one of China’s poorest provinces.
China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry quickly responded to the controversy by pointing out that China had received similar foreign aid before its boom in recent years. Since China is now much more developed, it is only natural that it fulfills its international duty. The ministry also noted that Macedonia helped with the rescue work after the massive 2008 earthquake in China.
Still, it’s hard to deny Chinese foreign officials’ utter lack of political sensitivity. Not only are people’s memories of the Gansu school bus accident still fresh, but so too is the subsequent debate about the shortcomings of both public transport and education in China.
“Diplomacy is the continuation of internal affairs,” as one commentator of this newspaper noted.
It is not because Chinese people aren’t satisfied with their own lives that they become emotional about the authority’s lack of humanity. Rather, as the commentator argues, it’s because there is no transparency in how China’s bureaucrats spend taxpayers’ money. For instance, under the supervision of an elected parliament, the budget, including foreign aid, goes through a vigorous public review. This is not the case in China.
Reacting to the widespread travel and transportation expenses abuse by Chinese officials’, the Chinese government demanded earlier this year that all ministries publish their spending openly. One ministry refused: the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs, citing the nature of their expenses as “state secrets.”
Read the full article in Chinese
Photo – jaaron