Foreign companies are defending themselves against accusations spread on Chinese Web sites that they are doing too little to help earthquake survivors.
Online comments called for boycotts of McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Nokia and others _ in one case calling them "International Super-Misers" _ but companies said they felt no impact.
"We feel very proud of what we've done. We've done a lot," said Thomas Jonsson, a spokesman for Nokia Corp., which donated food, tents and mobile phones for rescuers. On Wednesday, it pledged 35 million yuan ($5 million) for reconstruction.
McDonald's Corp. said it has served more than 40,000 meals to quake survivors and rescue workers and pledged 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) Wednesday to build new schools in quake areas.
"We've been involved in helping and responding since day one," said McDonald's spokeswoman Lisa Howard.
By Tuesday, foreign companies had donated 1.2 billion yuan ($175 million) in cash, plus supplies worth 108 million yuan ($15.5 million), according to the government.
Despite that, nationalistic Chinese Web surfers who react angrily to any perceived slight to their country have accused foreign companies of failing to provide enough help.
A posting on popular search engine Baidu.com's blog service listed corporate donations and said they were smaller than those after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Comments on online bulletin boards criticized McDonald's Corp., Yum Brands Inc.'s KFC restaurants, Toyota Motor Corp., Nokia, South Korea's Samsung Electronics Corp. and French retailer Carrefour SA.
Chinese nationalists often have conflicted feelings toward foreign companies, which have helped to fuel the country's economic boom but are seen as rivals to local companies.
Among other companies, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it has given food, some 3,000 tents and other aid worth 3 million yuan ($430,000) and added to that by using its distribution network to move supplies to the disaster area.
"We are reacting very quickly in support," said Wal-Mart spokesman Jonathan Dong.
Nokia sent 5,000 mobile phones for use by rescuers and sent employees into the disaster area to maintain them, Jonsson said.
"For us initially the most important thing was to get our relief effort going, and once we had it going we could communicate about it, but some people were quick to think we weren't doing anything," he said. "We've seen these criticisms going away and our efforts being better understood as the days go along."
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