Yang Junling, a member of the Democratic Revolutionary Party and director of SAIC Datsun's Overseas Department, on his personal saga of collecting donations for epidemic prevention supplies
Author? |? Ge Bangning
Edited by? |Jane
Produced by? |?Jane
Published by Gangning Studio (gbngzs)
The first batch, human flesh with goods, raised 60,000 masks.
The second batch, shipped from Australia, 20,000 masks and more than 40,000 protective clothing.
The third batch, shipped from Indonesia, 5,000 masks.
The fourth batch, shipped from Indonesia, 29,000 masks, is being gotten.
Fifth batch, shipped from Italy, 30,000 masks.
Sixth shipment, Poland, 1.6 tons of supplies.
Seventh shipment, Ireland, 1,300 masks and other supplies.
Eighth shipment, U.S. shipment, 10 boxes of masks.
The ninth batch, brought back from the U.S. itself, 15 sets of infrared temperature testers, a batch of goggles and gloves ......
It's hard to imagine that these vital strategic supplies were raised across several continents and countries in a very short time.
It's even harder to imagine that these domestic supplies in short supply were actually raised on their own by a motorist who happened to be on vacation overseas.
On February 5, 2020, Helping Ning Studio interviewed Yang Junling, a member of the Democratic Revolutionary Party and director of SAIC Datsun's overseas department, who was on vacation in Los Angeles, USA, by phone to listen to his account of the legendary experience of cross-border collection and procurement of this batch of medical supplies.
The following is Yang Junling's account.
On January 20, I took my wife and children to Los Angeles for a vacation. One day after arriving in Los Angeles, on the 21st, local time, I received a phone call from a friend in Los Angeles asking me about the situation in the country.
These friends had purchased some medical supplies in Los Angeles and the eastern part of the United States, mainly masks, and wanted to donate them to the country. That's when I sensed something was wrong with the situation and began to make conscious preparations.
Starting from the 22nd, I built six WeChat groups at once, which matched Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UAE, the UK, and a targeted district and county hospital in Hubei province. Most of the district and county hospital groups are doctors and nurses from various local hospitals, and what they offer is the real situation on the front line.
Briefly describe my background. I have more than 20 years of experience in international business and international operations, initially in the China Shipping Group, then to the Shanghai Bell Group for 8 years, then to Geely Automobile as an overseas sales director, and in 2012 to SAIC Datsun as the director of the Overseas Department, so I have made a lot of overseas friends, and accumulated a lot of overseas resources.
The first step is to mobilize all the friends I have, including chambers of commerce and industry associations in my home country. Because I can provide the most accurate first-hand information, and it comes from doctors in the districts and counties, these overseas friends trust me more and ask me where exactly I need medical supplies.
They offered to make targeted donations as much as possible, in which case I would often send them screenshots of the names and addresses of specific doctors at specific hospitals, so they could judge the truth of the message. As a result, I have been recommended by many of my foreign friends, and many of them have come to me to ask about the situation in China and their specific needs.
We also took some detours. At first, we didn't know much about international donations, and there was a bit of a flurry of activity. On January 23rd, Wuhan's New Crown Pneumonia Prevention and Control Command issued Circular No. 4, which states in Article 2.2 that it "will not accept donations of materials or overseas donations that are not related to the prevention and control of the epidemic.
Before that, these overseas donations were basically missing two things when they were shipped to China. First, locals were responsible for donating only money and goods, or donating money before purchasing, but often ignored the cost of air transportation logistics.
Second, the people in charge of purchasing, whether they are chambers of commerce, overseas Chinese, or students, don't know what's medical and what's industrial, and they don't know what levels of protection are available, for example, different levels of quarantine versus contagion. So these materials are all mixed together.
Then I got in touch with a friend of mine, Mr. Gao, who majored in viruses at Wuhan University in the class of '92, and through him I met his classmate, the U.S.-based donor Peng Ying, and after communicating with them and comparing the supplies from other sources, I discovered that the standards for the masks were different, and I was able to take care of a number of urgent matters.
There were many problems encountered. Generally speaking, the formal freight channel process includes: first, the collection of goods source standards are not consistent. Second, if it is a batch of materials shipped to China, there should be an export company. Third, air freight logistics costs are not included in the cost, are thinking of maximizing the purchase of supplies. Fourth, regular import routes require a customs clearance company. Fifth, donated supplies may also require a medical device license from the FDA. Sixth, after entering Chinese customs, customs clearance duties and taxes need to be addressed. Seventh, what about the transportation of the materials when they arrive in China? After Wuhan is closed, the transportation vehicles can't get in at all. Eighth, going into Wuhan and coming out again, the driver must be isolated.
This, because different countries set up different categories of goods and standards, some national standards are not widely known by the Chinese people, these standards are not the same materials sent to the hospital, it is difficult to ensure the safety of medical level, which is the biggest problem encountered in the international donation.
Another channel is the human flesh with goods. 22 we found that there are so many problems, 23 to determine to go to the human flesh with goods channel, otherwise the formal channels of any link is stuck, will be finished.
The human flesh with goods channel needs rich experience. For example, a chamber of commerce to complete the collection of goods, donors to complete the donation, purchasers to do the procurement, to the designated person. But this person may be a bit blind, how to transport these supplies back to China, and all the rest of the responsibility goes to him. What to do?
I suggested that we first organize a few international students to transport the supplies to the airport in a van logistics vehicle, VAN. At the same time, we try to find a way to approach China Eastern Airlines, hoping that they can put this batch of supplies over. They agreed with us with great difficulty.
The second move was to find people, mostly Chinese, who had traveled to China on China Eastern Airlines, tell them what was happening at home, and show them the supplies. Each box is not heavy, we remove all the small packages, unified into a large cardboard box, the top of the cardboard box to write the address of the directional donation. I'd like to ask them to use their own name for consignment, and to talk to China Eastern Airlines about not charging a fee.
Both passenger work, but also to do the work of China Eastern Airlines, through the human flesh with the goods channel, once brought home 60,000 masks, sub-packaged dozens of boxes, of which 20,000 masks raised by me.
The 60,000 masks arrived in Shanghai, suddenly encountered the No. 4 incident. This means that no supplies that have not been donated through formal channels are allowed to enter. But this thing must be done again, how to do? The only way to get in is to import and export international goods.
I immediately said in the (microblogging) group, how much money is needed, all I pay, as long as you issue.
They said, this agreed, I believe you.
I said, I immediately call the money, now are online banking, the operation is very convenient.
Also agreed.
This hurdle is considered to have passed, but still can not be released. Why? This is the first batch of unofficial donation channel from Australia over the bulk collection, bulk export, bulk air transport, bulk customs clearance of the material, even if there is a charity federation of the recipient of the certificate, but also must be issued by the Food and Drug Administration of the medical device license (only for protective clothing). The Australian shipment has not yet applied for this document. According to the regulations, this is not allowed to clear customs.
This batch of materials in Australia when boarding, because the free cargo hold can not be too much at once, so divided into two batches of shipment, the first batch of materials (masks) nearly 2.89 tons of the first shipment, the remaining more than 3 tons of materials (protective clothing) and so on the next flight.
To be honest, the first flight is basically a hard break. It was hard to get the Hubei Provincial Charity Federation to send a document indicating acceptance of the donation. The supplies were slated to be donated to the Wuhan hospital, but the handover point was not at the Hubei Provincial Charity Federation in Wuhan, but in Shanghai.
It was hard to get the first batch of supplies sent done, and I wanted to send the second batch of supplies in the early morning of the next day, but the next day it was not done from 5:00 am to 5:30 pm. What's the reason? We were willing to pay the tax, found a company to clear the customs, and found the importer, but the customs said that because of the protective clothing, they needed a medical device license, otherwise they had no authority to release the goods.
We have thought of many ways, including getting all the documents ready and applying to the Shanghai Pharmaceutical Administration, but have not gotten a reply from the Shanghai Pharmaceutical Administration. After this road failed, I went back to the Customs, I said, you are worried about the first is the tax, to prevent tax evasion is a matter of principle; the second is the quality of the material, to prevent secondary damage to health care workers.
I also said that I will guarantee the tax, according to your request, the first payment over as collateral or deposit. The quality of the goods, please Shanghai medical team to assess first, and asked the director of Wuhan University Zhongnan Hospital to write a written commitment letter, he and his team pre-audit, to confirm that this batch of goods reached the level of medical treatment before being distributed, so can not it?
Or not.
What can be done?
The Customs said it would need a similar certificate of commitment from the Hubei Provincial Charity Federation or the Red Cross, but no other channel would work.
The reason I was able to pull in these overseas donations is because I made a promise to them that I would keep an eye on the matter from start to finish to make sure that the donations would not be intercepted and would be delivered directly to the hospital. That's why they entrusted me with full authority, and because of that background, I had to find a way to get through.
Looking around, I found a classmate of the Central Youth Cadre, who is also from Wuhan, Hubei, and through him I asked the main committee of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Democratic Revolution to coordinate with the Hubei Charity Federation. At the same time, I will have all the documents and information ready, Hubei Charity Federation accordingly issued a generalized text to Shanghai Customs.
The so-called generalized text, probably written "Shanghai Customs: I will accept a batch of materials from overseas, to be imported through you here"...... but did not write where the materials come from; how many tons, how many cubic meters; and what are the materials and so on.
The supplies were finally cleared and released.
From 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. the next day, 24 hours passed, and the supplies came out only at noon the next day. The main problem is not here, the main problem is that SAIC is actively fighting the epidemic and deploying its Huayu Tiandi Logistics to take care of the delivery to Wuhan.
If we can keep up with the arrival of the last batch of supplies, Huayu Tiandi Logistics will be able to deliver some more, after all, the driver will be quarantined for 14 days after coming out of Wuhan. Supplies sent a day late, one is delayed, the second is the loss of a driver resource.
The supplies I handled: the first batch of human flesh with goods, raising 60,000 masks. The second batch shipped from Australia, 20,000 masks and more than 40,000 pieces of protective clothing. The third batch was shipped from Indonesia, 5,000 masks. Fourth batch of 29,000 masks shipped from Indonesia, getting them. Fifth shipment, Italy, 30,000 masks. Sixth shipment, Poland, 1.6 tons of supplies. Seventh shipment from Ireland, 1,300 masks and other supplies. Eighth shipment from the U.S., 10 cases of masks. Further down the line, on February 6, I procured 15 sets of infrared temperature testers, a shipment of goggles and gloves, which I brought home with me.
Taking the Indonesian batch of supplies shipped today as an example, Yang Yan, a colleague from SAIC Datsun, went to the airport to dock. After getting the itinerary there and doing the consignment, they immediately sent the relevant information to the WeChat group, and Yang Yan was ready to receive the goods and sent them directly to the hospital without a minute's delay, which is too efficient.
The next few batches of material will not be taken by human beings, but by international freight. The first batch was shipped from Prague to Frankfurt, Germany, and the second batch will be delivered to Frankfurt airport tomorrow, and then to China via China Southern Airline.
International shipments generally require four forms: one is the General Charity Federation stamped and signed to the Customs text; the second is the recipient unit issued by the note; the third is the list of items; the fourth is the donor-related information. These four forms can not be missing, otherwise even if the donation can not enter the customs.
About the sixth or seventh day of the month, our donation situation was reported by the media, in order to increase the effort, the company also gave great support, arranged for the team to use the strength of the organization, fully mobilize the resources of our global distributors, once again a large-scale "sweeping" to maximize the support of the domestic epidemic.
Results have just finished talking, the World Health Organization (WHO) held an emergency committee meeting on January 30, declared that China's new coronavirus outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), after the United States evacuated from Wuhan, but also in the domestic control of supplies. In addition to the U.S., governments such as Italy and Australia have begun to control medical supply manufacturing plants and mainstream channelers.
Retail is liberalized, but how much can retail buy? There's another story about retail that happened in Australia. At the time, we couldn't buy medical supplies, so we mobilized the masses to buy them box by box from retail stores. Suddenly all the stores had to adjust their stock and some of the smaller stores started to increase their prices. I told people not to complain about the price hike and sweep up as much as they had. That was truly a sweep, and all of a sudden the market was completely empty of retail and short-order supply.
Through this international collection of donations, I have several feelings.
First, the power of the masses is stronger than imagined. This power includes the power of sweeping, the power of trying to get through the channels by all means, and the power of getting over the barriers to reach the goal by all means. We encountered so many links, as long as there is a link does not go through may be abandoned, but we did not give up, but every second to fight.
Second, what's really missing in the social forces is a leader who can see the whole picture of the complete business chain and coordinate all kinds of resources to lead the whole process. In fact, all industries are the same, know all the links, arrange for the right person to the various links through, really make things happen, in fact, quite difficult.
Third, in the face of the epidemic, different provinces and cities of the same level of official institutions reflect a huge difference.
Fourth, the official action and sensitivity of smell are sometimes not as good as the private sector.
What is my biggest impression of this donation? It's not who has the money, it's the lack of supplies and goods. Our distributor group in Ireland, which is quite strong and often the guest of honor of national dignitaries, ended up not being able to buy the goods because there were no goods at all, they were all swept away, and you couldn't even buy them if you wanted to. So sometimes, when people want to have something to do, they may be too late and miss that window.
During this time, I get up at 8 a.m. every morning, go to bed at 3 or 4 a.m., and sleep up to five or six hours a day, every day. Yesterday, I was busy until 2:30 a.m. with company business, and nearly four hours before 2:30 a.m. working on medical supplies.
There was a hiccup during this period. from January 24th to 26th, I was working more than 20 hours a day almost every day. About three or four days ago, resistance dropped dramatically, and I asked for help in the WeChat group of doctors from the Shanghai medical team, asking them to diagnose remotely, and the diagnosis was keratitis because of a bacterial infection. I rushed to the doctor to buy medicine, and the next day the symptoms turned better, no pain, no itching, just still a little red. It was kind of a mutual help.
What was intended to be a vacation with my family turned into my wife taking the kids. The son is good too, buy him a Lego and he builds them for two hours. When he's done with one, give him another, and he continues to build while I work my butt off.
I hope spring comes soon.
This article comes from the author of the car home car home, does not represent the views of the car home position.