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Article

20 May 2008

Author:
Rujun Shen, Reuters

Foreign firms stint on quake aid -- or so it's said [China]

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...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...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.