Online giving making inroads in China

When the Chinese want to make a charitable contribution to a specific person or cause, observers say, they are increasingly turning to online giving. The donors are avoiding government-sanctioned charities recently besmirched by scandal, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. Microblogs called Weibo are now the method of choice to donate, signaling many Chinese no longer trust the government to use their gifts properly. Gifts to government-run charities soared following the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, with donations reaching record levels. But suspicions about the government-run charities were raised last year when a woman who said she worked for a charity affiliated with the Red Cross Society of China tweeted pictures of her lavish lifestyle, which included a Maserati and expensive designer clothing. A poor woman whose child needed chemotherapy treatments used Weibo to raise $16,000 from strangers, something she could not have done through a government charity. It's a form of protest for some, said Deng Fei, whose campaign to provide poor students in rural schools with lunches raised $6 million last year. "Weibo is putting great pressure on the government because it shows that if they don't solve basic problems, they are responsible for like food and health, the people will solve it without them," he said. The success of his campaign shamed the central government, which promised to spend $2.5 billion more on student lunches.