Foreign firms stint on quake aid -- or so it's said
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - After making heaps of money in China's vast market, heartless foreign corporations have failed to pay a cent towards earthquake relief -- or so claimed text messages buzzing between Chinese mobile phones on Tuesday.
The only snag is that every company named in the texts, from McDonald's to Louis Vuitton, has contributed cash, food or rescue equipment, according to the American Chamber of Commerce in China and the firms themselves.
"These 'international iron roosters' have struck it rich in China but not made donations," said one text message, using a Chinese phrase for a stingy person.
"If you are a Chinese person with a keen sense of justice, please boycott their products and food," read another text message, listing the same companies.
But the calls to action were not just xenophobic.
A smattering of complaints about foreign companies on Chinese blogs were drowned out by the outrage directed at domestic firms rumored to have been tight-fisted.
Vanke, China's biggest listed developer, became the top target for bloggers, who accused it of forcing employees to limit disaster relief donations to just 10 yuan
($1.44).
Press reports subsequently carried forceful denials from Vanke, but bloggers were not deterred from attacking Wang Shi, the company's chairman, who is known for climbing Mount Everest.
"He has crossed all the world's tallest peaks, but he can't even take a step towards a tomb in Wenchuan," read one posting that circulated on Chinese blogs. Wenchuan is the city at the epicenter of last week's quake that killed more than 30,000.
In fact, Wang was personally visiting the scene of devastation in Sichuan province and the property developer would help with reconstruction, China Business News said on Tuesday.
Blogs are notorious for eliciting extreme views. The body of opinion in Chinese stores appeared far more moderate.
Carrefour, for one, was crowded with shoppers, many pleased that the supermarket giant had donated more than 3 million yuan to disaster relief.
Just a month earlier, Carrefour was besieged by protests after Chinese bloggers accused it of supporting Tibetan independence, an allegation it refuted.
($1=6.970 Yuan)
(Additional reporting by Simon Rabinovitch in BEIJING; editing by Roger Crabb)
