Anger over donation of buses to Macedonia
By Xu Chi |
November 29, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A DONATION of 23 school buses to Macedonia has sparked a storm of criticism with many people saying the gift is "ill-considered" at a time when China was reeling from a spate of accidents, including one in which 19 kindergarten pupils were killed.
A total of 23 school buses, each with 35 seats and meeting all safety requirements, were donated by China to Macedonia last Friday at a ceremony in the capital, Skopje, according to the Macedonian government's official website.
The donation was made less than 10 days after a horror crash where a mini van packed with 62 children and two adults hit a truck head-on in China's northwestern Gansu Province, killing the adults and 19 of the children.
According to the website, Chinese ambassador Cui Zhiwei said at the ceremony that the donation was made to "improve the studying environment for Macedonian students."
The news immediately stirred a wave of outrage across China, with tens of thousands of comments on the country's major websites and forums.
On Weibo.com, more than 500,000 comments had been posted by last night, while on bbs.ifeng.com about 10,000 people took part in a heated discussion on the school bus issue.
Most comments raised the question of how such a donation could be made at a time when recent accidents in China exposed a situation where many schools could not afford to provide safe transport for pupils.
"The donation is so unbelievable that it sounds to me like rubbing salt in the country's deep wounds after a number of school bus accidents," was one comment.
"Chinese children don't have fine buses to deliver them to schools, and the Chinese government is actually sending extra buses to other countries."
On one forum there were calls for a joint letter to be sent to the Macedonia Embassy to urge them to return the buses to China, as "the Chinese people are still in deep sorrow of the recent school bus accident, and many Chinese children still cannot take the buses to school."
In response to the online fury, China's Foreign Ministry said the country was living up to its international obligations to help other countries as they had supported China during hard times, according to the news website caijing.com.cn.
The ministry said Macedonia had helped China during the massive earthquake in Sichuan in 2008, and the buses were provided under a 2010 agreement, according to the website.
The manufacturer of the buses, Yutong Co, said yesterday that the donation was a government transaction after it was criticized for not donating a single bus to schools in China.
On Sunday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised that new rules on school bus safety would be drafted within a month and said central and regional governments would provide funds for closer monitoring of manufacturing, renovation and allocation of school buses.
He was speaking the day after a school bus carrying 39 people in northeast Liaoning Province rolled over, injuring 35 students.
A total of 23 school buses, each with 35 seats and meeting all safety requirements, were donated by China to Macedonia last Friday at a ceremony in the capital, Skopje, according to the Macedonian government's official website.
The donation was made less than 10 days after a horror crash where a mini van packed with 62 children and two adults hit a truck head-on in China's northwestern Gansu Province, killing the adults and 19 of the children.
According to the website, Chinese ambassador Cui Zhiwei said at the ceremony that the donation was made to "improve the studying environment for Macedonian students."
The news immediately stirred a wave of outrage across China, with tens of thousands of comments on the country's major websites and forums.
On Weibo.com, more than 500,000 comments had been posted by last night, while on bbs.ifeng.com about 10,000 people took part in a heated discussion on the school bus issue.
Most comments raised the question of how such a donation could be made at a time when recent accidents in China exposed a situation where many schools could not afford to provide safe transport for pupils.
"The donation is so unbelievable that it sounds to me like rubbing salt in the country's deep wounds after a number of school bus accidents," was one comment.
"Chinese children don't have fine buses to deliver them to schools, and the Chinese government is actually sending extra buses to other countries."
On one forum there were calls for a joint letter to be sent to the Macedonia Embassy to urge them to return the buses to China, as "the Chinese people are still in deep sorrow of the recent school bus accident, and many Chinese children still cannot take the buses to school."
In response to the online fury, China's Foreign Ministry said the country was living up to its international obligations to help other countries as they had supported China during hard times, according to the news website caijing.com.cn.
The ministry said Macedonia had helped China during the massive earthquake in Sichuan in 2008, and the buses were provided under a 2010 agreement, according to the website.
The manufacturer of the buses, Yutong Co, said yesterday that the donation was a government transaction after it was criticized for not donating a single bus to schools in China.
On Sunday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised that new rules on school bus safety would be drafted within a month and said central and regional governments would provide funds for closer monitoring of manufacturing, renovation and allocation of school buses.
He was speaking the day after a school bus carrying 39 people in northeast Liaoning Province rolled over, injuring 35 students.
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