Skip to footer

A deluge of giving after China’s floods

Money and volunteers flow into Henan province after historic floods, perhaps setting a high-water mark for Chinese charity.

|
Reuters
Residents wade through floodwaters in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China, July 20.
  • By the Monitor's Editorial Board

For years, China ranked near the bottom on a global index of charitable giving and volunteering. But with its rise in wealth and in the number of Christians and Muslims – who perhaps now outnumber Communist Party members – the country’s standing on the giving index has rapidly risen. A good example is the surge of private help for those hurt by historic floods this week in Henan province – where a year’s worth of rain fell in just three days.

Nearly $300 million in donations has flowed into the region from Chinese enterprises, according to Reuters. Big tech companies are some of the biggest donors. News aggregator Jinri Toutiao (“Today’s Headlines”) has allowed users in Henan to ask for help. Local people also sent out calls for assistance on WeChat and other social media. “Thanks to all the companies and individuals who remember the people of Henan. Chinese people are the most powerful when they are faced with a disaster,” said one Weibo user.

A similar outpouring of generosity occurred last year in the city of Wuhan, epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, where party officials were slow to respond to the crisis. An estimated $5.9 billion was given to charity groups.

A big turning point for public magnanimity in China came after the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan. Thousands of volunteers rushed to the disaster scene, shocking party leaders who thought they had control over private charity. In 2016, a new “charity law” was passed to both encourage philanthropy but also tame it to follow party interests. Since then, the number of registered social organizations has more than doubled.

Also expanding are “giving circles,” or informal groups of private givers who pool their money for targeted charities. And since 2015, tech giant Tencent has sponsored a three-day online event called 99 Charity Day to raise money for giving groups.

Home to a fifth of the world’s population, China has steadily become a model for giving, or what Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama recently described as “thinking more of others than yourself.” The images of volunteers helping flood victims in Henan are showing the world a different China, one where the humanitarian response comes from the heart instead of a ruling party trying to stay in power.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to A deluge of giving after China’s floods
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2021/0721/A-deluge-of-giving-after-China-s-floods
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe