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Philanthropists step up citizens’ diplomacy with gifts even as US, Chinese diplomats play the blame game amid coronavirus pandemic
- The philanthropic foundations of Jack Ma and Joe Tsai, two of China’s wealthiest technology entrepreneurs, have donated 2.3 million face masks, 2,000 ventilators and 170,000 pieces of protective gear to New York
- The donation, the biggest by private citizens to the epicentre of the global coronavirus pandemic, was described by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as ‘really good news’
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Chinese philanthropists are stepping up their donation of protective gear, essential medical and diagnostic kits to the United States, Europe and Asian countries, despite rising acrimony between diplomats and government officials looking to pin blame amid the world’s worst pandemic in decades.
The private foundations of Jack Ma and Joe Tsai, co-founders of this newspaper’s owner Alibaba Group Holding and two of China’s wealthiest technology entrepreneurs, donated a total of 2.3 million face masks, 2,000 medical ventilators and 170,000 pieces of protective gear to New York.
All 2,000 ventilators have arrived, according to a person familiar with the arrangements. The ventilators arrived in two batches over the weekend.
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Delivery of the essential materials, made possible by behind-the-scenes negotiations by the donors and officials from both the Chinese and US governments, had to overcome many import and export regulatory hurdles, underscoring the role of civic diplomacy in dealing with the global public health crisis.
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The gesture comes as diplomats of both countries, and even government officials including the US president and his secretary of state, have engaged in a tit-for-tat war of words, attempting to pin the blame for the world’s worst pandemic in decades on each other.
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