We write a lot about telecoms like China Mobile (NYSE:CHL - News), but it's rare I get to write a story as pleasant as this one: the company has pledged to donate 13.5 million RMB ($2.1 million) to children with congenital heart disease over the next two years. This program, based in Zhengzhou, Henan, is a continuation of a similar program China Mobile's charitable foundation undertook in Inner Mongolia last year.
That program has already helped 377 impoverished children suffering from heart disease to receive treatment and provided free screenings for another 10,000. China Mobile volunteers also racked up more than a thousand hours of service in connection with the campaign, and this new Henan program aims to help even more children. Now, it would be easy to call this a cynical PR strategy (it could be) or to say that China Mobile could afford to give more (it could). Obviously, since I just wrote both of those things, a part of me even feels that way. But that's missing the point, I think. This is a capital-letters Good Thing and more Chinese companies should be doing things like this. China has no shortage of underprivileged children, and one of the advantages of being a profitable tech giant ought to be that you can use your powers to fight poverty and disease. Let me be very clear in my message to the CEOs of other tech companies that might be reading this article: do this. Do it for the kids, or do it for the PR bump, I don't care. Just do it (or something like it). Charity is good. So here's to China Mobile! Your 3G network may be kind of a joke, but your heart is clearly in the right place. (And you've got that sweet 4G TD-LTE network coming soon, hopefully, so don't feel too bad about what I just said about your 3G). [via Sina Tech]
