THREAD about how the tragic death of a 23-year-old woman in rural Guizhou province has cast a pall over one of China’s most reputable charities. 1/ 
The Chinese internet is devastated and outraged after poor, severely malnourished #WuHuayan died of heart failure Monday — two months after netizens donated over $145,000 toward her medical treatment and general welfare. 2/
Wu, who lived in a village near the city of Tongren, became a semi-public figure in October because of her extreme poverty and small stature: She stood 135 centimeters tall and weighed just 21 kilograms. 3/
Guizhou Forerunner College, where Wu had been enrolled as a student, announced her death Monday in a public post on social app WeChat. 4/ mp.weixin.qq.com/s/VCCfRlzKtqdS…
According to media reports and crowdfunding pages for Wu, both of her parents died when she was young, and she lived with and cared for her brother, who has a psychological condition, with just 300 yuan per month in government assistance. 5/
She reportedly required medical attention for heart and kidney disease — problems that her poor diet may have exacerbated. 6/
Wu’s death has sparked an outpouring of sadness online, as well as skepticism directed toward the China Charities Aid Foundation for Children, the charity under the Ministry of Civil Affairs that was in charge of raising & disbursing donations for her. 7/ ccafc.org.cn
After Wu’s story was reported in October, the Chinese public donated over 1 million yuan ($145,000) to her through the CCAFC on two crowdfunding platforms. 8/
In the wake of Wu’s untimely death, the state-run media outlet The Cover accused the CCAFC of running a deadly scam. 9/ thecover.cn/news/3371344
“Wu Huayan was not told about the 400,000 yuan in donations,” her relative told The Cover, referring to a donation drive the CCAFC had carried out through the fundraising arm of microblogging platform Weibo. 10/
Both the Weibo campaign and another on crowdfunding platform Shuidichou exceeded their goals of 600,000 yuan and 400,000 yuan, respectively. 11/
However, in the section of Wu’s Weibo crowdfunding page where the organizer can leave progress reports, the CCAFC posted just one receipt dated Nov. 4 for a bank transfer of 20,000 yuan to the Second People’s Hospital of Guiyang, where Wu was awaiting heart surgery. 12/
When our reporter Zhang Wanqing called the Second People’s Hospital of Guiyang on Tuesday to ask what had happened to the funds, an employee who answered the phone refused to comment. 13/
Repeated calls to the CCAFC went unanswered. However, the foundation responded to Wu’s death Tuesday in an update on her crowdfunding page, saying it had raised over 1 million yuan in total donations, 20,000 of which was disbursed to Wu in November. 14/ gongyi.weibo.com/236377
As for why Wu’s health, diet, and medical care did not improve afterward, the CCAFC said “the local government and Wu’s family requested that the donations wait until after her surgery, and so the donations have not yet been transferred to the hospital.” 15/
(A top official from Guizhou’s Songtao Miao Autonomous County denied this Tuesday evening, saying the government “only provided assistance” and “did not interfere with the use of funds.”) 16/ m.weibo.cn/5890672121/446…
The CCAFC’s response did not explain why Wu apparently could not directly access the funds that had been raised for her, nor did it suggest why the local government or Wu’s unidentified “family” should have had a say in how or when the funds were used. 17/
According to annual transparency rankings from Jiemian.com, the CCAFC was the most transparent charity in China last year, achieving a perfect score of 100. It had ranked 17th in 2018. 18/ m.jiemian.com/article/377683…
Yet despite its strong reputation, the CCAFC has been inundated with criticism following Wu’s death. 19/
“If the CCAFC decided to make changes to the donation plan and weren’t able to transfer money to Wu before her surgery as promised, then they should have informed the public as soon as possible,” a Shanghai-based project manager at a fundraising-focused NGO told @SixthTone. 20/
@SixthTone Netizens, too, found fault with the CCAFC’s response. One Weibo user accused the “despicable” CCAFC of exaggerating Wu’s poverty to collect donations on her behalf but without her consent. 21/ m.weibo.cn/1427631271/446…
@SixthTone Another Weibo user wrote in the comment section below that post that the CCAFC was “wearing an angel’s coat to do the devil’s deed.” 22/
@SixthTone The Chinese public is largely distrustful of domestic charities, which have been plagued by corruption and scandal in recent years. 23/
@SixthTone In December, the Spring Bud Project charity, which helps girls in rural communities stay in school, came under fire for allocating public donations to boys. 24/ sixthtone.com/news/1004967/n…
@SixthTone The same month, an app created by a charity under the State Council, China’s Cabinet, became mired in controversy amid accusations of fake accounts and dubious donations. 25/ sixthtone.com/news/1004996/c…
@SixthTone And in late 2017, netizens found duplicate photos and suspicious personal details on an app encouraging its users to sponsor an impoverished “birthday twin.” 26/ sixthtone.com/news/1001457/b…
@SixthTone Guizhou Forerunner College, where Wu studied before she fell ill, told @SixthTone on Tuesday that they are currently helping her relatives arrange the funeral. 27/
Finally, I’d just like to say that our reporter Zhang Wanqing — who has been a force of nature in her first few weeks on the job — did excellent work for this heartbreaking story, which likely won’t see the light of day except in this form… 28/end
oops, these numbers should be flipped
