Tarnished American Philanthropy in China
By LARRY ROMANOFF – September 24, 2020
According to Chinese state authorities, Ron Brown of the AGAPE Foundation of Peachtree City, Georgia, traveled to
Wuhan in late 2004 and signed a contract
with several domestic charitable organisations in China to provide 2 million
RMB each year of medical supplies and materials, in part to assist with
cardiac surgery and treatments, but the overall purpose was stated as being
"to improve the lives of orphans and the lonely elderly". So far, so
good.
Some time after the signing of this
agreement, AGAPE shipped its first 'donation' of medical devices to Shaoyang
City in Hunan. I happened to be in Shanghai at the time and was watching a TV
news program which included a segment on this first AGAPE donation of medical
supplies, the container being opened in the presence of local medical officials
and a TV news crew. The shipment included heart surgery kits, medical outfits,
medical gloves, pledgets, adhesive tapes, waste bins, catheters, sutures,
syringes, and other accessories. We watched while the Customs Officers and
medical staff examined the contents of these containers. What we saw was
appalling.
The donated “medical supplies” had been
re-packed in old boxes bearing labels for foodstuffs, electronics, and even
Coca Cola and KFC, many of which were soiled by mildew, oil, and dirt stains
and emitted strong odors. All of the medicines, drugs, pharmaceuticals, were
past (or long past) their safe-use dates. Carton after carton of syringes,
bandages, sterile wrappings and similar items were all in packages that had
been opened and were no longer sterile. It was easy, even on TV, to see that
many of the syringes had been used, then replaced in their packages, and one
could see the cockroaches crawling around inside the supposedly-sterile
cartons. Catheters that were supposedly to be used for heart surgery, were
clearly used, were in non-sterile packaging, and suitable only for discard. The
disposable syringes contained a suspicious black fluid and had lost their sterility
through exposure to the air, while reagents and disinfectants had leaked,
contaminating other items.
