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Breaking News – Inadequate government aid sparks grievance in Hunan

During severe January snowstorms in China, Hunan Province was among the worst affected regions. Over twenty days of devastating weather caused havoc for more than 40 million of the population. Continuous water and power cuts along with persistent inflation, has caused the people of Hunan to express great dissatisfaction toward the inadequate aid provided by the government.

Tan Kewen, a pig farmer in Xiangtan City of Hunan Province said, a large number of his animals had frozen to death, causing serious losses, but the government has not empathised with the difficulties faced by its people. Mr Tan said in his locality, the power lines are aged and worn, but despite the 250 dollars from each household which the government had charged, the lines have still not been renewed.

Tan said, “The power lines have fallen over, and the lines are cut off. They were installed during the 1950’s and 1960’s, and when the cold hits these lines, the power supply would just stop. I have a few hundred pigs in my farm, but cannot feed them anything. 70 to 80 of them have frozen to death. In the government, who cares? Like last year, some disease epidemic killed so many pigs, but no one came to my assistance.”

The people from Hengyang City of Hunan also expressed, the snowstorms have caused serious damages, but they had not received any kind of help or support.

A resident from Hengyang said, “We have suffered great damages. Because of the snow, power lines and houses have collapsed. Some have even died because the snow, power and water supplies have stopped for about one month. Yet everything has risen in cost, 3 to 5 times the original price. The problem is, there are so many corrupt officials now, they don’t care if you starve to death, or freeze to death. Where is the welfare? The money has all gone to the corrupt government officials.”

According to the Chinese Communist government’s state media, since the 13th of January, an extremely rare period of severe snowstorms have caused damages to 40 million people. 23 thousand homes and buildings have been destroyed, and a further 30 thousand have seen damages. Approximately 608 thousand livestock have been lost.

The above news is brought to you by Lu Fang, Li Xin, Xionag Wu and Chris Thomas for Breaking News on the Sound of Hope Radio Network.