The Issue with Lack of Charity

Hey Laowinners! 

Japan just ended its 40 year charity to China. 

(Article here: https://www.inkstonenews.com/politics/japan-stop-giving-aid-china-after-40-years/article/2170164

This raises two questions. With China and Japan being mortal enemies, why was Japan giving aid to China in the first place? And, why the hell is China one of the least charitable countries in the world?

Turns out, despite all of the horrific things that Japan did to China during the 30s and 40s, post war Japan stepped in to try and heal some of those scars. Anti-Japan protests are common, and often fueled by the CCP. Many of the atrocities committed by Japan were not admitted in public school books, or by Japan's leadership, and this sparks the protests in China on a regular basis. However, I found out that Japanese aid actually funded much of the Beijing metro's construction. Also, Beijing's international airport was built with Japanese charity. This doesn't excuse past actions, but I found it interesting that despite all of this bad blood, Japan has been pumping aid and relief into China for 40 years.

So why stop? China's economic power (NOT per person GDP) has jumped to second place in the world, so China should theoretically be able to pull itself together on its own now. 

I found it strange that in very family oriented societies like China and Japan, Japan is surprisingly charitable. When visiting poor villages in Laos, I noticed that most of them had signs saying that all or most of the aid pouring in was from Japanese NGOs.

This caused me to wonder why China, a very self focused east asian country is so uncharitable. It ranks on the bottom 10 of nations that give the least to charity.

It turns out that most NGOs are squashed by the government, because the CCP is quite fearful of religious based groups, as well as any large body outside of the government that is able to collect a lot of money. This causes very corrupt government run charities to lose the trust of the citizens, and create a lot of disdain for anything related to charity. 

Pair this with the fact that Chinese people were taught selfishness for survival at the highest level when Mao era China was starving and pillaging itself. This take what I can get now attitude pervades the lost generation's mentality, to the point where giving to others is an unfathomable idea. 

Also, much of China still lives on a very low income, so there is a notion that the wealthy should help their own citizens first. Unfortunately, apart from tossing some coin to a beggar to show off to your girlfriend, even the wealthy have a hard time sharing in China.

This makes me quite sad, as China has painted the narrative that it constantly is punished and forced into submission by outside forces. Unfortunately, the constant pushing of historical guilt on its people seems to continue to push this narrative to a point where China can't see past this and play fair on a global stage.