Sichuan earthquake relief money spent on luxury cars

[Doctor Cynic]

Source: Telegraph

Almost every Chinese person donated money in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake last May in a display of charity that unified the country. The disaster claimed the lives of more than 87,000 people and was the deadliest earthquake to strike China for half-a-century.

However, there is growing evidence that a large slice of their pledges has been siphoned off or misused by local officials.

According to China's National Audit Office, there have been close to 2,000 complaints of corrupt behaviour. Some local officials exaggerated the death tolls in their counties in order to grab a larger share of relief aid. In Chongzhou City, the tourism bureau and transport department filed their paperwork twice in order to win 1.23 billion yuan (£123m) of additional aid.

The latest outrage came when a full inventory of the luxury cars purchased by Beichuan County was leaked onto the internet. Beichuan was totally destroyed and 3,000 of its residents have been consigned to temporary shelter for the next three years while a new site is chosen for their town.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/43...

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They were probably ex-CEOs of Citibank, Lehman, AIG, and GM.

[rfranklin]

1. there are Republicans everywhere...

it's the dark side of human nature.

[NOW tense]

2. This World needs an enima..... n/t

[whistle]

3. Learning republican values very quickly in China

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Looks as if Bush spread Democracy to China, also, you betcha.

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. The Chinese will be ruthless and put them before a firing squad

I've seen them do it before.