American companies help their devastated Chinese compatriots

When the earthquake devastated Chengdu, China, the aftershocks rippled through several American companies that have long-established ties there.

While many experienced damage to buildings and minor injuries to some employees, the companies realized they had to help their neighbors.

Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc., which has been in financial trouble, donated money, communications equipment and services. Lisle-based Molex Inc. opened its new manufacturing plant to help house homeless survivors. And Alcatel-Lucent started repairing the infrastructure.

Others also lent a hand in unique ways.

"The Chinese government reacted very quickly and put a lot of resources into that area," said Martin Slark, Molex Inc.' chief executive officer. "We're looking to help in some way, too."

Molex raced to help its 2,000 employees in four offices, about 50 miles northwest of the quake's epicenter.

Their buildings sustained some minor damage. Employees were safe, but seven construction workers were injured.

Molex realized it had little to offer for recovery or rebuilding, since it makes connectors for high-tech equipment. But it did have one thing available to help homeless workers and other victims: its new manufacturing plant, poised to open soon to serve the Asian market.

"Many of these people were spending their nights outside, in the cold and wet, in fear of the aftershocks," said Slark. "So we're making our plant available to them until their homes are safe again."

At Motorola China, two workers reported minor injuries during the evacuation, and its building sustained some damage. The company has about 400 employees, mostly engineers, in Chengdu.

Motorola China quickly shifted into gear to help the devastated region. It donated to the China Red Cross Association, and then provided emergency control communications equipment, mobile phones, related services and $286,000 cash for the disaster relief, said Motorola spokeswoman Paula Thornton Greear.

"Motorola will continue to work with local government organizations and customers to determine the donation and support requirements for the next stage," Thornton Greear said.

At Alcatel Shanghai Bell, the flagship company in China for Alcatel-Lucent, a 24-hour emergency response team was dispatched to support customers with disaster response and network recovery efforts, said spokeswoman Mary Ward.

"We have collected information about the state of the equipment in the quake-hit provinces, and are making urgent repair work to get the communication infrastructure back up and running," Ward said.

In the Sichuan province -- the hardest-hit region -- the transmission networks for several operators have been damaged. Alcatel Shanghai Bell is now racing against time to restore operations, she said.

The company, which also has operations in Naperville, has about 10,000 employees in China, including 500 in the earthquake region. The Alcatel-Lucent Foundation is arranging to make a donation to the relief efforts.

"Since the earthquake struck we have focused on two things -- ensuring the continued safety of our employees and maintaining communications with them, and on working with our customers and the government to aid them in recovering communications services in the areas hardest hit by the earthquake," she said.

McDonald's China restaurants were closed Monday, but 22 have since reopened. Six are closed in Chengdu, due to power outages and structural inspections, McDonald's China Company Ltd. CEO Jeff Schwartz said in an e-mailed statement.

McDonald's China has 28 restaurants in the Sichuan province, 20 in Chengdu and eight in Chongching. There was no damage reported and employees were safe.

"Our local restaurants -- with their workers from the local community -- share the grief and shock, but also share the desire to do all they can to immediately assist their neighbors," Schwartz said.