China’s School Bus Donation to Macedonia Stirs Strong Criticism

The Chinese regime recently made a high-profile donation of 23 brand new China-made school buses to the small European country of Macedonia to provide transportation for Macedonian students. The report of the donation has drawn strong criticism from Chinese media and netizens, in particular as it comes in the wake of the tragic school van accident that killed 19 preschoolers in Gansu Province just nine days prior.

According to China’s Foreign Ministry’s website, the bus donation ceremony was held on Nov. 25. China has also provided multiple aid programs to Macedonia including training, school reconstruction, and computer supplies, and hence contributed to the country’s economic development. Chinese ambassador Cui Ziwei said the gesture shows that Chinese authorities “attach great value to the Sino-Macedonian relationship.”

The school buses were made by Zhengzhou Yutong Group. A Yutong sales manager told Hong Kong’s Apply Daily that the model donated to Macedonia is priced at about 500,000 yuan (US$78,377) each in China, with the total donation amounting to over 10 million yuan (US$1.57 million).

China donated 23 school buses to Macedonia. Each bus has 35 seats and meets all European and North American safety standards. They are also equipped with automatic doors and fire extinguishers, according to the Macedonian government website.

Macedonia has a similar per capita GDP as China, but China’s education spending accounts for only 0.6 percent of its GDP, whereas Macedonia’s accounts for 5 percent. Its per capita net income is also higher than China’s, reports by Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily and Ming Pao Dailysaid.

The shock of the Nov. 16 school van accident in Zhengning County of Gansu Province is still fresh in Chinese people’s minds. A nine-seat school van was crammed full with 64 people when it had a head-on collision with a truck. Twenty-one people were killed, including 19 preschoolers, 43 others were injured, some of them seriously.

After the accident several Chinese media reported that students in China often do not have the privilege to ride regular school buses at all; instead, many schools in China transport students in illegally modified vans or even salvaged cars. Some schools said they cannot afford standard school buses and have instead resorted to using illegally modified cars to increase transportation capacity. Local governments also often refuse to offer financial aid for the purchase of school buses, using the excuse of no funds.

The donation of school buses to Macedonia triggered public outcry on Chinese blogs and microblogs. As of Nov. 28, half a million comments were posted on Sina.com, China’s most popular web portal.

Sina microblog posted a survey on Nov. 26, asking how people view China’s school bus donations to Macedonia. Within one day, 12,622 netizens voted, 88 percent objecting to the aid donation.

Ms. Ren from China told New Tang Dynasty TV: “I was in tears upon reading the news. My heart ached so much. Why didn’t they give this money to [Chinese schools in] those poverty stricken regions? Why can’t they allow our own children to sit in these buses?”

Zhang Xuezhong, a lecturer from East China University of Political Science and Law, said in a microblog posting, given that the regime’s fiscal revenues all come from taxes paid by the people, the regime has failed to meet the people’s basic needs and instead has repeatedly given generous aid to other countries, even to some that are wealthier than China. “Such perverse acts, and how such perverse acts are defended, are already beyond the limits of human understanding,” Zhang said.

Jiao Guobiao, a former associate professor of the School of Journalism and Communication at Peking University, told The Epoch Times that donating school buses to Macedonia is a “stupid” decision and not just a simple problem. “If we extend this incident to foreign aid, China’s strategy of external propaganda is a total failure,” he said.

The Macedonian school bus donation has especially pained and inflamed Chinese people because for decades they have been told by the regime that foreigners are exploiting the Chinese people. Yet this case clearly shows the regime’s disregard for the welfare of Chinese people. To curry political influence abroad, it ignores China’s own needy schoolchildren and gives school buses to kids in foreign countries instead, and in a grand and open ceremony at that.

Read the original Chinese article.