Amidst the worsening economic situation and spread of unemployment in China, the Chinese Communist Party leader recently declared a bold plan to provide 360 billion yuan in funding to Africa, creating 1 million job opportunities, which has sparked anger among netizens. Online discussions related to the issue are tightly controlled in mainland China, with even the term “generosity syndrome” used to mock the authorities being censored on Weibo, and the entry of “generosity syndrome” deleted from Baidu Baike.
At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Forum on China-Africa Cooperation on September 5, Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping announced a plan to provide 360 billion yuan in funding support to Africa over the next three years. He also pledged to provide 1 billion yuan in emergency food aid to Africa, construct 100,000 acres of agricultural demonstration zones, send 500 agricultural experts to Africa, and provide 1 billion yuan in unconditional military assistance, among other initiatives.
Many netizens have begun using the term “generosity syndrome” to describe the absurd behavior of the authorities. Discussions on this topic have emerged on social media platforms both within and outside China.
According to the explanation provided by Baidu Baike, “generosity syndrome” is a condition caused by nerve damage in the brain. Symptoms include being extremely generous, constantly giving snacks, drinks, and even money to acquaintances or strangers. Studying “the relationship between altruism and selfishness” through generosity syndrome, along with other common consequences of stroke, may contribute to a better understanding of how the brain makes decisions.
However, the entry for this term has been deleted from both Baidu Baike and Sogou Baike in mainland China. While Google still shows search results for the explanations of “generosity syndrome” on Baidu Baike and Sogou Baike, clicking the links reveals that the content is no longer available – with Baidu Baike displaying a message stating, “The page you are trying to visit does not exist,” and Sogou Baike showing a 404 error page.
Weibo has directly censored “generosity syndrome,” with searches for the term returning a message stating, “Sorry, no related results found.” Even a video on Douyin titled “There is a disease called generosity syndrome?” has been deleted.
However, an article titled “After a man had a stroke, he kept giving money to strangers, doctor says it’s generosity syndrome,” which was widely reported by Chinese official media last year, remains unremoved.
Furthermore, netizens have noticed a sudden 4100% increase in the WeChat index related to “generosity syndrome” in the past two days.
The Chinese Communist Party’s lavish spending in Africa has ignited the fury of netizens at home and abroad. Many netizens believe that the Chinese economy is in disarray, with the common people unable to afford medical treatment or education, and even struggling to put food on the table. Some people are resorting to suicide, while local governments are selling assets to make ends meet – they fail to understand why the authorities are still supporting Africa.
Former Chinese Communist Party official and independent commentator Du Wen expressed on X, “Recently, local governments in China are busy selling assets, and central government revenue continues to decline. However, President Xi continues to spend extravagantly, being luxurious and extravagant, spending billions. This reminds me of the critique of the Ning and Rong families in ‘Dream of the Red Chamber,’ where wealth and honor are abundant from top to bottom, but there’s no one who can strategize. The daily expenses cannot be reduced. Although the facade outside is not completely falling, the internal resources have been exhausted. As for this problem, there seems to be no better answer than the cryptic phrase left by Qin Keqing when she dreamt for Feng Jie: ‘After the three springs pass, all beauty will fade, and each must find their own path.'”