A man apologized to a woman and the general public for making up a story of a mother crawling on the streets of Guangzhou to solicit donations for her sick baby.
The man, Shi Jinquan, said he had just wanted to help the woman, Xie Sanxiu, raise money for her sick daughter, domestic media reported yesterday.
Xie, a native of Hubei Province, also apologized for the hoax and said she would return the 280,000 yuan (US$42,655) in donations to netizens. Her seven-month-old daughter has eye cancer, domestic media have reported.
A picture of a woman crawling on the street with a sick baby attracted national attention on the Internet in recent days. A netizen called Son of the Guangzhou Rich said he would give 20,000 yuan immediately if she could crawl for one kilometer because she said she would exchange her life for the baby s health.
However, after she did, the Son of the Guangzhou Rich did not show up or pay her the promised money.
Netizens, angry at Xie s humiliation, soon started to donate money and Xie received more than 280,000 yuan.
However, Tianya.com, a well-known online forum, later said the IP address of Son of the Guangdong Rich was the same as that of Shi, the manager of the forum where Xie published her post. Shi was immediately dismissed by the Web site.
Shi admitted he had made up the whole story. I saw her appeals on the Internet and really wanted to help her, so I planned the whole story and persuaded her to take part, hoping to tap people s sympathy and anger, he said.
Shi thought this was the only way to raise money and he thought it was worth it because the baby would be saved. Society is so cold and cruel. If she could have had help when she asked for it, I would not have helped her this way, he said.
(By Wang Yuanyuan)
