Wu Guangqiang

    jw368@163.com

    WHEN speaking of philanthropists, everyone is filled with deep veneration. We hold in high respect billionaires who donate billions of their wealth to society as Bill Gates and Jack Ma have done. We also raise our hats to those anonymous, good-hearted people who send their salaries or pensions to people in need.

    It would hardly occur to anyone that some evil people are committing hideous deeds in the name of charity. They are deceiving kind-hearted folks with their handsome social status and shining titles.

    The following appalling case hammers home the importance of placing charity under official regulation and public oversight.

    Wang Jie, a 35-year-old man in Longlin, a mountainous county in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, had allegedly sexually assaulted at least 10 female students, all minors, before he was arrested.

    Qiu Chu, a right-minded volunteer in Shandong Province, exposed Wang after he found something fishy when he attempted to donate money to the website “Baise Zhuxue Wang” (“Helping Poor Students Attend School in Baise,” a poverty-stricken city in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), which was run by Wang.

    Wang set up the website in March 2006. He claimed that he had received a total of 7 million yuan (US$1.1 million) in donations from over 10,000 donors and that he had helped over 4,000 poor students with the money, which, of course, was unconfirmed.

    His “benevolence” won him fame as “an angel in the mountains.” But the “angel” turned out to be an outright demon, according to media reports.

    When Qiu was told by another volunteer that Wang offered to have a girl minor “accompany” whoever donated between 20,000 and 30,000 yuan, Wang couldn’t believe his ears. He decided to go to Baise to investigate.

    The result of his one-year investigation shocked everyone.

    Wang’s scam was extremely despicable. He allegedly took his victims to hotel rooms or other venues on the pretext of giving money to them before raping them. Some of the girls were still in primary school. The animal even video-recorded the assaults for two purposes: to intimidate his victims in case they tried to report him and to show off his dirty work to other pedophiles.

    Despite his own poor family background, Wang did not have a shred of sympathy for the poor and vulnerable girls, most of whom were from single-parent families or were left-behind children — those whose parents were working far away in cities. Wang took full advantage of the girls’ vulnerability and helplessness.

    By threatening his victims that he would release the videos or revoke the donations, Wang covered up his crimes for years. Some of the girls were raped several times over the years and at least one of them got pregnant. His brutality completely ruined the girls’ lives. Since being raped carries a negative social stigma in some areas, the victims never had the courage to report the criminal and their families were ashamed. Some girls were forced to leave their homes to go somewhere far away where no one knew them.

    The jobless Wang helped himself to the donated money since the “charity” was not being supervised. He turned the fair-sounding organization into a business and criminal ring. His donors not only got kickbacks but were also given little girls to rape as “rewards.”

    This shocking case may be only the tip of the iceberg. The absence of charity laws in China has given rise to a host of problems, leaving loopholes for wicked people. In Wang’s case, there was no procedure in place to examine and approve his website, raise money or run his “charity operation.” He used his private bank accounts for the donation transactions, which no one ever checked. He actually could do whatever he wanted.

    Tens of thousands of children in impoverished areas still badly need donations to help pay for their schooling. There will never be too many charitable organizations. But only legal, open, transparent and well-supervised institutions can fit the bill.

    The legislation of charity laws brooks no more delay.

    (The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.)