(Translation based on article from the Southern Weekend, April 12, 2007. )

In 1999, Hu Manli, founder of China Green Shade Children’s Village (CGSCV), went to Lijiang, Yunnan Province. Hu rose to fame for adopting several hundred orphans and was reputed as “Mother of China”. For this trip, she was representing United Moms Charity Association (UMCA), an American charity organization headed by Zhang Chunhua, to build orphan schools. Over the past seven years, Hu was repeatedly questioned by Zhang and others about her management of the orphan schools and use of donations. The war between the “United Moms” (UMCA) and the “Mother of China” spanned seven years.

“For these many years, Hu Manli has embezzled a lot of money from donations. We’ll stop her.” Zhang Chunhua, who’s Chinese American, murmured while reading the official documents with a magnifier.

Hu Manli had been a symbol of grass-root philanthropy in China. This middle-aged woman was known for her commitment to Chinese orphans and was named “Mother of China” in public-interest ads broadcast on CCTV. Seven years ago, however, her reputation was overturned by Zhang Chunhua, who entrusted her to build orphan schools in Lijiang.

Zhang was president of UMCA based in the United States. UMCA once helped Hu set up Lijiang United Moms Charity Association and entrusted her to build Lijiang National Orphan School. Over the past seven years, however, after Zhang discovered Hu’s misconducts – embezzling donations for board expenses and education as well as muddling up the books, she started to disclose Hu’s misdeeds. We also held doubts toward Hu’s charity after participating in the investigations after 2001.

Finally, Zhang received the document from the Lijiang government. It said that the city government would take over Lijiang National Orphan School starting April 1. For some reasons the takeover was postponed, but officials from the city government stated that “(the government) is destined to take over the school in a couple of days”, and would ensure that “the school operates normally, the donations made good use of, and the city government be responsible for all expenses if donations are unavailable”. Such determination to take over the orphan school resulted from the previous year’s audit of Hu’s charity. The audit looked into the financial revenues and expenditure of the orphan school since its establishment and till August 31, 2006.

The audit revealed: Hu faked financial accounts and make the around 330,000 yuan (approximately $48,316) of public donations appear to be her personal donation; withdrew about 100,000 yuan (approximately $14,641) from orphans’ personal accounts with copies of passbooks; evade over 430,000 yuan (approximately $62,958) from fixed assets check; Hu also bought around 280,000 yuan (approximately $40,996) commercial insurance for over ten orphans and listed it as one-time expense of the school. However, she left out the bonuses from the insurance accounts and hind the fact the premium for the insurance will be fully refund in five years; the revenues of the computer services department were also unstated. The audit also revealed that illegal receipts, in the form of general receipt, payment orders, and merchandise transfer slips, amounted to 420,000 yuan (approximately $61,493), among which up to 170,000 yuan (approximately $24,890) was stated receipts of consecutive numbers from one seller. “Such a big amount was stated on consecutive receipts, mostly likely a result of accounting fraud before the audit.” Zhang Chunhua proved it with another evidence she discovered. Comparing the 2006 audit report to the one issued by the Lijiang Audit Bureau in 2000, an additional 100,000 yuan (approximately $14,641) in the 1999 and 420,000 yuan (approximately $61,493) in the 2000 board expenses were found during the 2006 audit.

One official from the city government who was handling the incident believed that the audit still understated the problems. According to the law, the financial accounts audited were voluntarily presented by Hu. “Hu Manli is the only decision maker in the school, not supervised by anybody. Even Chen Bin, the accountant, was an orphan brought up by her. We never know what she made up before the audit. But the report already revealed these many problems.”

The audit bureau also has no right to investigate into Hu’s personal assets. We knew in 2002 that Hu owns a luxurious house occupying over 320 square meters and worth of over 500,000 yuan (approximately $73,206) in Lijiang. We also know from somebody who once lived with Hu that she purchased another two houses worth of around 400,000 yuan (approximately $58,565) under the name of her mother Wang Fengqin and her adopted son Chen Bin. She also sent her daughter Gui Tiantian to study in New Zealand high school. Her daughter is about to graduate from college now.

Hu Manli, however, took on a different image in front of orphans. Zhou Hong, who has already left the orphan school, told us “Hu said her life was worthless. She showed us her clothes full of patches.” Hu would then cry saying that she set up the orphan school with donations from her friends for her brain tumor. “We’re asked to pay homage to her before every meal, saying that she’s more than our natural mothers and how she devoted all her life to us. Now I feel disgusted when I think about that.”

(Translated by Stella Zhou of Harvard University. © Hauser Center at Harvard. )