In 1999, China had another major flood. The Chinese employees at my bank immediately started a fundraising drive inside the bank. As in the past, after discussing it with the board, I decided that our consortium would also join in.
The main method was this: for every one dollar donated by employees, the consortium would take out one dollar from the commissions paid by clients as a matching donation. Taking into account the tax issues in previous fundraising efforts, we also decided to entrust a welfare-oriented charitable organization to act as the body for our campaign. In this way, whether it was employee donations or consortium donations, both could enjoy tax deductions when filing taxes at the end of the year. This way, we could donate to China without affecting the interests of private individuals or the consortium. As in previous years, I voluntarily donated five thousand US dollars.
The original plan was to run the fundraising for one month, but after half a month the results were very unimpressive, and the donations received were obviously fewer than in previous years. My secretary Angie brought this up in a conversation. I asked her, “Do you know why the donations are so few?”
Miss Angie said, “The Americans in our consortium are no longer donating, and they’re even telling clients not to donate.”
I found this very strange: “Why?”
Miss Angie did not answer me directly: “Ask the Americans and you’ll know. If I weren’t Chinese myself, I wouldn’t want to donate anymore either”。。。。。。。
A few days later, during a lunch, I asked the bank employees: “Why don’t you want to donate to China anymore? With your income, if you donate money you can deduct it from taxes, so there’s no loss. Why are you unwilling to donate?”
The Americans were quite frank: “I think the Chinese government is deceiving people. If we donate, we’re being duped.”
I was astonished when I heard that: “Why?”
The Americans immediately all started talking at once: “China has been having floods since the 1980s. In the early 1990s it was a once-in-ten-years great flood; by the mid-1990s it was a once-in-thirty-years flood; and this year it’s even better, a once-in-a-hundred-years great flood. We find it very strange—why does the Chinese government’s flood control make the floods bigger and bigger? Also, when we donate, we have no idea where the money goes, and no one gives us any account of it. Countries all over the world issue statements after receiving international donations, explaining the amount and the use of the funds, so why doesn’t the Chinese government? We asked the Chinese consulate, and all we got was a word of thanks. As for where the money was used, they only said it was China’s internal affair and that we had no right to ask. But this is our donation. We need to know.”
As soon as I heard this, I understood the crux of the problem. I smiled and said, “That’s easy to handle. If you’re worried the money will be used elsewhere, then we can donate goods to China instead of money.”
When the Americans heard that, they were delighted: “If it’s like that, then we’re willing to donate.”
After that, I called in the Chinese employees organizing the donation drive, and we all discussed what goods to buy for China with the donated funds. After some discussion, everyone agreed to use the donations to buy rice for disaster relief in China. Once the opinion was unified, the Americans’ donations immediately started coming in. After another half month, we made a count: there was over seventy thousand dollars in total. So everyone began looking for cheap rice. One of the directors of my consortium, Mr. Fr ank, had stayed in Texas before and knew the situation there, so he contacted grain merchants there. Sure enough, there was good news. In Texas there were hundreds of thousands of tons of lower-grade rice, only twenty dollars per ton. The quality was not very good: 70% whole rice and 30% broken rice. But it did not affect edibility. As disaster relief supplies it should not have been a problem, and with limited money we could buy more rice. After some bargaining, in the end we bought 3500 tons of rice for sixty thousand dollars. The remaining ten thousand plus dollars would be used to pay freight, and any shortfall would be paid by the consortium.
Once the rice had been bought, everyone appointed a gentleman to contact the Chinese consulate about the donation. The Chinese consulate in Los Angeles greatly appreciated our method and said they would immediately contact the Chinese government on our behalf. They also specially called to express thanks to us.
Two days later, the Chinese consulate called: “We regret to inform you that the Chinese government has certain requirements for grain imports. May we ask whether you could convert the grain into an equivalent amount of money?”
When the Americans heard this, they exploded in anger: “China doesn’t need grain, it only wants US dollars. If we give them dollars, who knows what it will be used for? We will only donate grain, not money.”
Seeing that there was trouble, the organizers hurriedly contacted the consulate again. Soon the consulate replied: “Donating grain is possible, but it must be approved by the Chinese government. Only with official approval can import be permitted. And you must first prepare samples to send to China. Only after inspection by the inspection department can shipment be made. Also, the inspection fee must be paid by you, about 5000 US dollars, and it will take about one month.”
When the organizers heard how troublesome this was, that the grain could not be shipped immediately and that there would be an additional five-thousand-dollar inspection fee, they said, “Donating grain to China has to be this troublesome— the Americans will never agree.” What could be done? The several Chinese employees had no choice but to discuss it among themselves first, then they came to me and said: “Boss, you know the consulate well, go help smooth things over for us. Otherwise it will be too humiliating for us Chinese. If this doesn’t get handled well this time, next time no one will donate to China anymore.”
When I heard this, I agreed, and immediately called the vice consul general at the consulate. I explained the whole situation, and the vice consul general was quite sympathetic. He told me: “I will contact the authorities back home immediately and tell you the result tomorrow.”
After hearing that, I quickly comforted the organizers: “The vice consul general has already said he will contact the authorities at home immediately and give a reply tomorrow. Wait one more day and see.”
Early the next morning, the vice consul general called. Very apologetically, he said to me: “We fully understand the patriotic feelings of you overseas Chinese, but things are very busy at home right now, and your request cannot be approved at this time. If you absolutely must do it this way, we can immediately write a report to the authorities at home and ask them to approve it. But the time may be very long; a conservative estimate would be more than three months. My suggestion is that you sell the rice, convert it into US dollars, and donate that to the country. Also, you are donating in the name of a Christian church, which does not conform to the Chinese government’s political stance. You need to submit a report to us on the church’s history and political situation, and after we investigate it clearly, we will write a report to the authorities at home.
Only after approval is obtained can the donation be made.” After hearing this, my heart turned cold. After going in circles for so long, we were back at the starting point: the authorities back home still wanted US dollars, not grain. No wonder the Americans were unwilling to donate anymore. Helpless, I could only tell the result to the Chinese employees organizing this donation campaign. After hearing it, the Chinese employees let out another sigh: “From now on, we will never again do this kind of foolish thing where we’re blamed from both inside and outside. After loving our country all the way to the end, we still have to explain our political motives to the Chinese government.”
But the rice had already been bought, and this result also had to be told to the American employees in the consortium and the clients who had participated in the donations. Sure enough, when the Americans heard it, they flew into a rage and all demanded to question the Chinese consulate. But after making several phone calls, everyone fell silent. It turned out that the consulate’s reply was very simple: “The Chinese government is happy to accept everyone’s donations, but China’s internal affairs do not permit interference by outsiders.” In other words: “If you want to donate, then donate. If you don’t, that’s fine with us too.” When the Americans heard this, they were filled with righteous indignation: “How can the Chinese government treat friendly people this way? How can it treat its own disaster victims this way? Wasn’t the rice bought with money? Isn’t grain even more able to provide relief in an emergency? Why do they only want US dollars?”
Angry as they were, 3500 tons of rice was a real problem. We could neither break the contract nor wait. Finding a buyer would take time, and not one of us was a grain merchant. On top of that, we had to pay several hundred dollars a day in storage fees. We couldn’t possibly ask everyone to donate more money just to pay storage costs, could we? Besides, at this point, who would still donate again? After discussing it, everyone decided that since it had already been donated and the Chinese government could not immediately accept it, we might as well donate it to someone else.
Since everyone wanted to donate the grain to someone else, we began making new contacts. Very soon, the government of the Republic of El Salvador sent back a fax, and embassy staff also came to our consortium. They accepted the donation unconditionally. Their government would pay the freight, and the freight money saved could be used to buy more grain to donate to them.。。。。。。。
From then on, no one in my consortium organized donations for disaster relief in China anymore, and no one was willing to do so either.
The main method was this: for every one dollar donated by employees, the consortium would take out one dollar from the commissions paid by clients as a matching donation. Taking into account the tax issues in previous fundraising efforts, we also decided to entrust a welfare-oriented charitable organization to act as the body for our campaign. In this way, whether it was employee donations or consortium donations, both could enjoy tax deductions when filing taxes at the end of the year. This way, we could donate to China without affecting the interests of private individuals or the consortium. As in previous years, I voluntarily donated five thousand US dollars.
The original plan was to run the fundraising for one month, but after half a month the results were very unimpressive, and the donations received were obviously fewer than in previous years. My secretary Angie brought this up in a conversation. I asked her, “Do you know why the donations are so few?”
Miss Angie said, “The Americans in our consortium are no longer donating, and they’re even telling clients not to donate.”
I found this very strange: “Why?”
Miss Angie did not answer me directly: “Ask the Americans and you’ll know. If I weren’t Chinese myself, I wouldn’t want to donate anymore either”。。。。。。。
A few days later, during a lunch, I asked the bank employees: “Why don’t you want to donate to China anymore? With your income, if you donate money you can deduct it from taxes, so there’s no loss. Why are you unwilling to donate?”
The Americans were quite frank: “I think the Chinese government is deceiving people. If we donate, we’re being duped.”
I was astonished when I heard that: “Why?”
The Americans immediately all started talking at once: “China has been having floods since the 1980s. In the early 1990s it was a once-in-ten-years great flood; by the mid-1990s it was a once-in-thirty-years flood; and this year it’s even better, a once-in-a-hundred-years great flood. We find it very strange—why does the Chinese government’s flood control make the floods bigger and bigger? Also, when we donate, we have no idea where the money goes, and no one gives us any account of it. Countries all over the world issue statements after receiving international donations, explaining the amount and the use of the funds, so why doesn’t the Chinese government? We asked the Chinese consulate, and all we got was a word of thanks. As for where the money was used, they only said it was China’s internal affair and that we had no right to ask. But this is our donation. We need to know.”
As soon as I heard this, I understood the crux of the problem. I smiled and said, “That’s easy to handle. If you’re worried the money will be used elsewhere, then we can donate goods to China instead of money.”
When the Americans heard that, they were delighted: “If it’s like that, then we’re willing to donate.”
After that, I called in the Chinese employees organizing the donation drive, and we all discussed what goods to buy for China with the donated funds. After some discussion, everyone agreed to use the donations to buy rice for disaster relief in China. Once the opinion was unified, the Americans’ donations immediately started coming in. After another half month, we made a count: there was over seventy thousand dollars in total. So everyone began looking for cheap rice. One of the directors of my consortium, Mr. Fr ank, had stayed in Texas before and knew the situation there, so he contacted grain merchants there. Sure enough, there was good news. In Texas there were hundreds of thousands of tons of lower-grade rice, only twenty dollars per ton. The quality was not very good: 70% whole rice and 30% broken rice. But it did not affect edibility. As disaster relief supplies it should not have been a problem, and with limited money we could buy more rice. After some bargaining, in the end we bought 3500 tons of rice for sixty thousand dollars. The remaining ten thousand plus dollars would be used to pay freight, and any shortfall would be paid by the consortium.
Once the rice had been bought, everyone appointed a gentleman to contact the Chinese consulate about the donation. The Chinese consulate in Los Angeles greatly appreciated our method and said they would immediately contact the Chinese government on our behalf. They also specially called to express thanks to us.
Two days later, the Chinese consulate called: “We regret to inform you that the Chinese government has certain requirements for grain imports. May we ask whether you could convert the grain into an equivalent amount of money?”
When the Americans heard this, they exploded in anger: “China doesn’t need grain, it only wants US dollars. If we give them dollars, who knows what it will be used for? We will only donate grain, not money.”
Seeing that there was trouble, the organizers hurriedly contacted the consulate again. Soon the consulate replied: “Donating grain is possible, but it must be approved by the Chinese government. Only with official approval can import be permitted. And you must first prepare samples to send to China. Only after inspection by the inspection department can shipment be made. Also, the inspection fee must be paid by you, about 5000 US dollars, and it will take about one month.”
When the organizers heard how troublesome this was, that the grain could not be shipped immediately and that there would be an additional five-thousand-dollar inspection fee, they said, “Donating grain to China has to be this troublesome— the Americans will never agree.” What could be done? The several Chinese employees had no choice but to discuss it among themselves first, then they came to me and said: “Boss, you know the consulate well, go help smooth things over for us. Otherwise it will be too humiliating for us Chinese. If this doesn’t get handled well this time, next time no one will donate to China anymore.”
When I heard this, I agreed, and immediately called the vice consul general at the consulate. I explained the whole situation, and the vice consul general was quite sympathetic. He told me: “I will contact the authorities back home immediately and tell you the result tomorrow.”
After hearing that, I quickly comforted the organizers: “The vice consul general has already said he will contact the authorities at home immediately and give a reply tomorrow. Wait one more day and see.”
Early the next morning, the vice consul general called. Very apologetically, he said to me: “We fully understand the patriotic feelings of you overseas Chinese, but things are very busy at home right now, and your request cannot be approved at this time. If you absolutely must do it this way, we can immediately write a report to the authorities at home and ask them to approve it. But the time may be very long; a conservative estimate would be more than three months. My suggestion is that you sell the rice, convert it into US dollars, and donate that to the country. Also, you are donating in the name of a Christian church, which does not conform to the Chinese government’s political stance. You need to submit a report to us on the church’s history and political situation, and after we investigate it clearly, we will write a report to the authorities at home.
Only after approval is obtained can the donation be made.” After hearing this, my heart turned cold. After going in circles for so long, we were back at the starting point: the authorities back home still wanted US dollars, not grain. No wonder the Americans were unwilling to donate anymore. Helpless, I could only tell the result to the Chinese employees organizing this donation campaign. After hearing it, the Chinese employees let out another sigh: “From now on, we will never again do this kind of foolish thing where we’re blamed from both inside and outside. After loving our country all the way to the end, we still have to explain our political motives to the Chinese government.”
But the rice had already been bought, and this result also had to be told to the American employees in the consortium and the clients who had participated in the donations. Sure enough, when the Americans heard it, they flew into a rage and all demanded to question the Chinese consulate. But after making several phone calls, everyone fell silent. It turned out that the consulate’s reply was very simple: “The Chinese government is happy to accept everyone’s donations, but China’s internal affairs do not permit interference by outsiders.” In other words: “If you want to donate, then donate. If you don’t, that’s fine with us too.” When the Americans heard this, they were filled with righteous indignation: “How can the Chinese government treat friendly people this way? How can it treat its own disaster victims this way? Wasn’t the rice bought with money? Isn’t grain even more able to provide relief in an emergency? Why do they only want US dollars?”
Angry as they were, 3500 tons of rice was a real problem. We could neither break the contract nor wait. Finding a buyer would take time, and not one of us was a grain merchant. On top of that, we had to pay several hundred dollars a day in storage fees. We couldn’t possibly ask everyone to donate more money just to pay storage costs, could we? Besides, at this point, who would still donate again? After discussing it, everyone decided that since it had already been donated and the Chinese government could not immediately accept it, we might as well donate it to someone else.
Since everyone wanted to donate the grain to someone else, we began making new contacts. Very soon, the government of the Republic of El Salvador sent back a fax, and embassy staff also came to our consortium. They accepted the donation unconditionally. Their government would pay the freight, and the freight money saved could be used to buy more grain to donate to them.。。。。。。。
From then on, no one in my consortium organized donations for disaster relief in China anymore, and no one was willing to do so either.
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http://hzmys.blog.163.com/
我的网盘
firststep.qjwm.com
fsmys.ys168.com
ssmys.ys168.com
www.brsbox.com/fsmys
www.brsbox.com/ssmys
www.brsbox.com/ccdos
