Sending money to China and Burma — why?

Shame on Ignatieff for using the horrifying plight of the poor people for talking points. I certainly have a lot of sympathy for the victims of the natural disasters in China and Burma but I object to sending money to their governments. It makes no sense to me. Foreigners just sent tons of aid to Burma immediately after the cyclone hit and the Burmese military junta stopped it all at the airport. What is wrong with that picture?

Now that money is involved, Michael Ignatieff gets in a tiffy:

“Australia is giving $25 million, the British $10 million, why aren’t we giving more when we can clearly do so,” Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff asked.

Clearly do so? We could clearly flush all of our money down the toilet too but we clearly do NOT do so. Ever think why?
I think he must be dreadfully stupid (or possibly disingenuous) to trust that the money will get to the people who need it most given the recent track record of the Myanmar statesmen — or maybe Ignatieff is completely clueless about how such despotic statesmen operate.

The Chinese are the major commercial supporters of the Myanmar military dictatorship. Let the Chinese government officials pay for everything: help people in Burma, help people in China and help re-build all of that infrastructure.