China Gives Additional $1.4 Million Aid to Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) Victims in Philippines, But Still Less Compared to Other Economic Powers
China has bowed down to international pressure and has decided to give an additional $1.4 million worth of relief supplies for the victims of the Category 5 super typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in the Philippines. China's humanitarian assistance now totals $1.6 million.
Still, analysts reproached the amount, chiding the country how unfitting it was coming most especially from the world's supposed second-largest economy.
"China has missed an excellent opportunity to show itself as a responsible power and to generate goodwill," Zheng Yongnian, a China politics expert at the National University of Singapore, told The Guardian. "They still lack strategic thinking."
Ikea, a mere Swedish yet best-selling global furniture chain, gave even more than China, at $2.6 million.
Qin Gang, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Thursday that China did not say that the $200,000 it offered earlier this week was all that it would give to its neighbour which happens to also claim sovereignty over a group of islands it said was theirs.
"We never said the earlier amount was final and that it will never change," Mr Qin said, noting any change will be based according to the requirements on ground zero.
Read: China, Philippines at Odds Again Over $100,000 Donation Amount to Victims of Typhoon Haiyan (Photos)
He however admitted that the catalyst that made China increase its initial humanitarian assistance was that "an overwhelming majority of Chinese people are sympathetic with the people of the Philippines."
China's donation, compared to the other super economic powers, "reflects the political deadlock, if not outright hostility, between the two countries," Zhu Feng, an international relations expert at Peking University, told The Guardian. "The political atmosphere is the biggest influence."
China's humanitarian aid compares miserably with the amounts extended by the other G20s.
The U.S. provided $20 million and Australia $30 million. Even Japan $10 million.
The earlier $200,000, according Qin Yaqing, professor of international studies at the Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, was a decision most probably effected at the mid-level of the government. "I don't believe the leaders are that stupid as not to provide assistance," he told the New York Times.
"They probably believed China has to contribute something but not that much," Jin Canrong, professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, said.
China's latest donation places it along the same level as with Ireland which donated $1.4 million, Italy at $1.3 million and Spain at $1.8 million.