When I first hear that my well-heeled Surrey neighbourhood is receiving aid from China, I assume it must be a hoax. I don’t believe it until I see a press release from the borough council confirming that the Dongying municipal government has made a £5,660 donation to help the unskilled and socially excluded of Guildford through projects including bicycle-mending.
Ever get the feeling you are living in a parallel universe and that the world you once understood a little bit has left you behind, in terms of the dwindling sense that it makes? Who’s funding who in the overseas aid fandango is one of the great mysteries of globalisation that can make you feel like you are going stark, staring mad.
The stockbrokers of Surrey ended up on the receiving end of Chinese charity after Guildford borough council ‘partnered’ itself with Dongying, a city of two million people in Shandong province in eastern China, where the average professional salary is a few hundred pounds a month.
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