Typhoon Haiyan Disaster in the Philippines
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
What is even more likely is that Xi wasn't even the one who inked off the amount. In spite of Blackstone's ridiculous attempts to bait a flame war here, we should all be aware that China has a functioning foreign ministry...
MwRYum
Major
While China's aid pledged to Philippines are very minimial compare to the scale of calamity, it's worth to note that there're strong opinion in China against giving any aid - in fact, "don't aid the enemy" is the tone this camp claims, for the Philippines have been a hostile nation in territorial disputes against China and pull off just about all sorts of acts that gets under China's skin. How do you convince the Chinese public to aid a nation that has been throwing muck at you 95% of the time and with an incredible smug while doing it? Besides, China also got hit by that typhoon, "take care of your own first" they proclaim strongly.
In HK, a place that usually pride itself of doing the exact opposite of the Mainland China, and are generally soft in giving donations, are finding it difficult to muster aid from the public this time - the unresolved mess of the Manila hostage fiasco still fresh in memory, which "helped" a large degree by the Philippine president, of his incredible smug all this time, and making HK's Chief Executive CY Leung looks like an idiot and sucker in public, only just a few months ago. There's so much talk on the net of divine retribution that's hardly surprising, the government's motion to inject an equivalent of USD 5 million into a disaster relief fund got pushed to this Friday instead of earlier can easily seen as a tit-for-tat response. And that fund is for NGOs to apply for relief effort, not as a typical government-to-government effort either. Ok, by the current opinion trend the motion will pass, but by the time the NGOs got the funds and get to work, most might be too dead on the ground to be helped anyway.
And back to the devastated zone left behind by Haiyan, according to newsreel it's all infrastructures were totalled, the last facade of public order is on the brink of disintegration. Certainly if to reach remote areas for any survivors before they either starved to death or claimed by injuries and diseases, helicopters, especially the heavy lifting ones, will be badly needed now, yet the Philippines Armed Forces doesn't have the needed number in its entirety of its fleet, neither is the USS Washington battlegroup bringing such numbers (they'd better off re-deploy a LHA with a few squadrons of MV-22 for this, make it there from Japan or Guam most ricky-tick). The Philippines still wants to claim the death toll won't reach 5-digits, but I willing to bet that, by the end of this week when the USN elements begin to fly sorties into the outer laying regions currently unreachable on land, the official death toll will go up by a few thousands...and if they couldn't rein in the hygiene, outbreak of diseases will kill further more.
In HK, a place that usually pride itself of doing the exact opposite of the Mainland China, and are generally soft in giving donations, are finding it difficult to muster aid from the public this time - the unresolved mess of the Manila hostage fiasco still fresh in memory, which "helped" a large degree by the Philippine president, of his incredible smug all this time, and making HK's Chief Executive CY Leung looks like an idiot and sucker in public, only just a few months ago. There's so much talk on the net of divine retribution that's hardly surprising, the government's motion to inject an equivalent of USD 5 million into a disaster relief fund got pushed to this Friday instead of earlier can easily seen as a tit-for-tat response. And that fund is for NGOs to apply for relief effort, not as a typical government-to-government effort either. Ok, by the current opinion trend the motion will pass, but by the time the NGOs got the funds and get to work, most might be too dead on the ground to be helped anyway.
And back to the devastated zone left behind by Haiyan, according to newsreel it's all infrastructures were totalled, the last facade of public order is on the brink of disintegration. Certainly if to reach remote areas for any survivors before they either starved to death or claimed by injuries and diseases, helicopters, especially the heavy lifting ones, will be badly needed now, yet the Philippines Armed Forces doesn't have the needed number in its entirety of its fleet, neither is the USS Washington battlegroup bringing such numbers (they'd better off re-deploy a LHA with a few squadrons of MV-22 for this, make it there from Japan or Guam most ricky-tick). The Philippines still wants to claim the death toll won't reach 5-digits, but I willing to bet that, by the end of this week when the USN elements begin to fly sorties into the outer laying regions currently unreachable on land, the official death toll will go up by a few thousands...and if they couldn't rein in the hygiene, outbreak of diseases will kill further more.
solarz
Brigadier
Actually, all of this has just been a made-up drama by western media. First they reported that China is only sending $100k through the Red Cross. Then the "Red Cross" name gets mysteriously dropped from the discourse, and it becomes China sending only $100k, while the truth is that the Chinese government matched the Red Cross contribution for a total of $200k.
At the same time, China had announced that it was also sending material aid. This fact is completely absent from all western media accounts, and I was only able to read it from Chinese sources. So it is very likely that the $1.4 mil relief supplies has been in the works all along.
Let's put it this way. Politics always counts. If this typhoon had hit maybe Thailand or Indonesia then what you're saying may have passed. But fact of the matter is Philippines are viewed quite badly by your average Chinese right now.
What you're suggesting is like if the US delivered massive monetary aid to Iran after a hypothetical earthquake.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Like corrupt Filipino officials aren't going to get to touch the money first? How about China just send supplies they would need? That way corrupt hands cannot get cash so easily. I bet money that doesn't go through aid organizations and instead to the Philippine government most of it will be pocketed. I bet the Philippine government would not allow Chinese to administer aid directly.
Blackstone
Brigadier
As a matter of fact, we WOULD assist Iran after massive natural disasters. Not sure if the Iranian government would accept, but we would offer.
Blackstone
Brigadier
I agree with your point some (lots?) of the donated money wouldn't get to the actual victims, so food, bottled water, medicine, equipment, and supplies might be better.
Why would China want to administer aid? Their government hasn't shown much interest in past years, and NGOs in China aren't well-developed. If the reverse were true, then I don't really see the Philippine government objecting, as long as China follows same rules and procedures as other countries and NGOs.