This weekend, folks in Sichuan, China were rocked by a devastating earthquake that leveled much of the area. The quake, which the country’s earthquake administration rated a 7.0 (US Geo Survey says 6.6), destroyed countless houses and buildings.
Apple has since began facilitating donations for relief efforts in the area, and has pledged to provide new equipment for schools in the affected cities. And we’ve just received word that it’s upped its commitment by offering up $8 million to the victims…
In a press release (via MacRumors), Apple notes that it has donated around 50 million RMB (or approximately $8 million in US dollars) to a fund for those affected by Saturday’s earthquake. This, as we understand it, is in addition to its donation drive.
Donations during major disasters are fairly common for the iPad-maker, who donated some $2.5 million to the American Red Cross organization for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. The superstorm tore through the northeastern part of the US last fall.
The situation, however, is more interesting in China, as the company has quite the relationship with the country. In addition to it being a huge market for smartphones and tablets, many Apple products are made in Foxconn’s Chinese manufacturing plants.
Apple is also still recovering from a PR nightmare in China, where government-backed reports called the company out for unfair warranty practices. The complaints have seemingly died off though after Tim Cook issued an open letter-apology to the country.
The earthquake struck the city of Ya’an in China’s Sichuan province on Saturday night. And at the time of this writing, there have been hundreds of casualties reported and the injury count is said to be in upwards of 12,000.