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Clear and direct. With twelve hours of time difference, from Beijing, the Chilean ambassador to China, Luis Schmidt, is kind to answer the phone and does not avoid any questions. He says that the last few weeks have been exhausting and that when he finished talking to The Third P.M You will have to get down to review some documents. She hopes to finish her workday at about 2 in the morning.
The ambassador – who was president of the National Society of Agriculture – enters fully into the story about the donation of mechanical fans by the Chinese authority. The same that, at first, the Minister of Health, Jaime Mañalich, put in a thousand devices, to later affirm that there were 500. The case became relevant after the Chinese ambassador to Chile Xu Bu assured that “I do not know the commitment of our government to donate fans to Chile ”.
Schmidt assures that he does not know of a donation of this type and that the only one of which he has certain that the State of China has made to Chile is the one that the Chinese diplomat himself gave yesterday in our country. Among them, there were 6,700 masks, which were made available to Cenabast, and a letter delivered by Xu himself to Mañalich, in which, according to the minister, an undetermined number of fans were added.
How has the Chinese government’s relationship with Chile been as a result of the pandemic?
The relationship with the Chinese authorities is optimal. In February, when President Piñera was on vacation, he spoke to President Xi Jinping. They both promised to work together. President Piñera already knew what was coming and we were even going to send some doctors to come and learn. In Chile it was taken as if they came to help the Chinese, when they never thought about it. In the end it could not be done, but in general the Chinese government has tried to collaborate.
The government and Minister Mañalich have spoken that the Chinese government had promised ventilators and that they did not arrive, but it is also necessary to think that many of these factories that make medical supplies were stopped for a long time and for the Chinese government it is much more profitable, politically speaking, giving donations to Venezuela and the United States. We are a smaller country. So things cost more. Notwithstanding that, the Chinese companies that are different from the government have made a very good collaboration with us and we have done very well. In the case of the Chinese government, I don’t know. That’s being handled by Xu Bu and they blame each other there, but I think it’s part of what I’m saying.
But for now, the State of China has made a donation to Chile?
The only donation I know of from the State of China to Chile is yesterday’s. Xu Bu was with Minister Mañalich and when asked if China has made a donation as a State to Chile, I at least have not seen it. Xu Bu talks about collaborations and other things that should be asked in Santiago. But nobody here has come from the Chinese government to tell me: you know what, I’m going to help you in your campaign. No, here they are more concerned with knowing what I have here and I do not want to say much so that it does not cause expectation.
Is that because of the risk that they will be seized in the middle of the transfer?
Yes too. But on that issue of the controversy of whether or not they received them, I have no greater background.
Could the Minsal have been negotiating the donation through another channel than the diplomatic one?
I reiterate: yesterday I saw that Minister Mañalich met with Ambassador Xu Bu and made him a donation of masks and minor items. But if they were bigger things, I should know them, because here the whole subject of ventilators or things that have to do with artificial intelligence or even coronavirus control kits are more complex operations and we should know them.
Do you speak directly with Minister Jaime Mañalich?
I have had to speak to him, but normally the minister is so busy that I speak with the director of welfare networks or with the minister’s chief of staff. Of course, with the minister also when he has space, but today he has so many things on his mind that it is more difficult.
First he said 1,000, then there were 500 and they would have been donated by China. Are you sure of that donation?
But don’t ask me that. I am so far from the things that are said there in Chile, sorry. And of course, I look at them, but they are issues that will have to be clarified by Minister Mañalich and Ambassador Xu Bu. I understand that the ambassador was called from Congress. Those are topics that the press sees them and see it with those involved there. Fortunately I am far away. The only thing that worries me is being able to send them as many things as possible and at the right time to serve the doctors.
Have Chinese companies with a presence in Chile been good to Chile? Have they been generous?
Yes of course. I am a close friend of the President of Viña ChangYu, because I was supporting when Viña Indómita was bought. But of course, I know Liliana Solari, I also know Wilfred Leigh, who is the general manager. I also know the president of the vineyard, and when I called him to tell him that we were having complications, he said: Oh, but immediately. He made a very important donation of important things.
ChangYu donated fans?
I am not going to tell you details, but you made an important donation. Later, another company that is very well related to Chile is Joyvio, who bought the salmon company Australis Seafood in November 2018. Its general manager Jerome Chen and the president of the company made themselves available to me and made a large donation. Also the director and CEO of Tianqi, Vivian Wu, is a very good friend of mine and made some important donations to me as well. China Construction Bank has also done so. I have many companies that have collaborated strongly. We are very happy.
How did you start your work to support the purchase of medical supplies?
There are still restrictions here. Until a month ago you went to a restaurant, you could not sit more than two people per table and the food was left at the table next to you. The 1,400 million Chinese walk here with a mask and gloves. I also walk like this. Here too, seeing that things were going to get complicated, I wondered how I can help my country. In early March I started a campaign between the companies and my friends and asked them to donate and cooperate with me. This started little by little. I was a little embarrassed, because at first they told me: Chile still does not have any infected and is already asking questions. At the beginning it was harder. This was growing and now I must have about 140 companies and 80 individuals who have donated things to this embassy. First I started by vacating the halls of the embassy. Then I started packing boxes in the office. When Juan Sutil (president of the Confederation of Production and Commerce) asked me to collaborate to get us into the subject of fans, we kept going. Today fans are worth between $ 40,000 and $ 60,000. Each one is like having a car. I started putting them together in my house. First it was in the living room. Then in the dining room and now in the bedroom. I am very happy, because planes from the Chilean Air Force are now coming to arrive shortly.
When will the planes arrive in Chile with the supplies you have received?
I can not tell you that, because the planes must stop and if they stop in the United States or Europe it is complicated. I cannot speak of dates or arrivals.
How has life changed in the city where you live?
The authority here has not only done well. For 1.4 billion people, the official statistics say that 83,000 have been infected and 4,500 died, it is nothing. It is as if, in Chile, a thousand people had been infected, keeping the proportions, and 40 had died. We are already 10,000 infected and 130 people have died. And that we are still leaving. Here what has prevailed is a very strong control, such as declaring quarantines very early. Here (Beijing) things are under control. Big cities like Shanghai or Guangzhou province or Wuhan itself, people are working. Everyone is walking.
What do you think of the theories that this disease was created in a laboratory in China?
I have also heard that. President Donald Trump has been very explicit in saying that there has been more than negligence here and that he will begin to study what happened. In Shanghai there were many infected, but few deaths. The Chinese themselves or the Chinese government are also protecting themselves, saying that the virus was brought by some Americans who were working in one of the Wuhan research centers. There are a number of impressive rumors. I do not have enough information to say whether they are true or not. But rumors are even circulating on social networks that China sent this virus to make World War III and without taking a bullet to take over the world. History will tell us in the future what happened, because I have no more background.
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