Business

Saturday January 17, 2009

China’s newly-rich starting to give generously

By RACHAEL KAM


CHARITABLE activities, which are encouraged by the teachings of Confucius, have existed in China for centuries within communities, clans, and kinships.

As the country becomes more prosperous and the people become more affluent, there have been an emergence of more philanthropists who provide generous support to charities, social welfare, and education of the people in their clans and counties.

China today, is not only a place where fortunes are being made, but increasingly a place where the wealthy people, including famous tycoons and movie stars, are involved in charitable acts.

According to the 2008 Hurun Philanthropy List in Hurun Report, most of the top 100 philanthropists in China are giving away their wealth to education, social welfare, poverty alleviation, health care, disaster relief, culture and sports, and religion donation.

Most donors contribute to the fields of education, followed by Social welfare, poverty alleviation and health care. Of the top 100 philanthropists last year, 73 gave to education, 48 to social welfare, 29 to poverty alleviation and 25 to health care.

Jet Li: Through his One Foundation he has set a mission to shield billions of disaster-stricken victims in Asia.

The Hurun Report says the country’s top 100 philanthropists have contributed 12.9 billion yuan (US$1.8bil) since 2003.

“From 2003 to 2007, China’s top 100 philanthropists had given 9.5 billion yuan in donations,” it says.

Shanghai-based Hurun Report is the leading media platform for China’s richest individuals, including a quarterly magazine, a fortnightly newsletter and an active event business.

The founder and compiler of the Hurun Report Briton Rupert Hoogewerf established The China Rich List in 1999 with two students from Donghua University in Shanghai, and published the first China Rich List in Forbes magazine.

Li Ka-shing: Regarded as one of Asia’s most generous philanthropists, he has pledged to donate one-third of his fortune to charity and philanthropic projects throughout the world.

“More and more wealthy people are setting up their own charitable funds, and the whole of society have paid more attention to charity,” Hoogewerf, who is also a qualified charted accountant says in the Hurun Report.

The Hurun Report discovered that 66 of the top philanthropists were also ranked China’s 100 wealthiest in 2008.

The average age of the philanthropists list last year was 52, compared with the average age of 48, five years ago.

In 2008, the 86-year-old hotel and real estate entrepreneur in Shenzhen, Yu Pengnian was topping the list for the third year. Yu has endowed his foundation with 3 billion yuan in the past five years to provide cataract operations.

According to the 2008 Hurun Philanthropy List, Yu has donated US$420mil to health and higher education, followed by the chairman of property developer Hopson Development Holdings Ltd Zhu Meng Yi, who donated US$158mil to education and health. Zhu, who is also known as Chu Mang Yee, has a stock of donation worth 1.1 billion yuan in the past five years.

Ranked third on the list, Huang Rulun, chairman of the Jinyuan Hotel Group has given away 850 million yuan since 2003. Last year, Huang donated US$120mil into education, poverty alleviation and disaster relief.

Giving away via foundation

In Hong Kong, the richest businessman Li Ka-shing is regarded as one of Asia’s most generous philanthropists, donating over US$1bil to date to charity and other various philanthropic causes via his Li Ka Shing Foundation and other private charitable Foundations.

The Li Ka Shing Foundation was ranked top seventh wealthiest foundations with the endowment of US$10.1bil.

Li is the richest person of Chinese descent in the world and the eleventh richest man in the world according to Forbes. Up to March 5 last year, Li’s estimated wealth is US$26.5bil.

His donation in 1981 resulted in the founding of Shantou University, near Chaozhou. In 2002, his donation of US$11.5mil to the higher education institution led to the setting up of the Li Ka Shing Library at the Singapore Management University, which was named in his honour.

Thereafter, Li also made some big donations including US$3mil to the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake disaster, US$128mil to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong in 2005, US$100mil to Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in the National University of Singapore in 2007, C$25mil to St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto to found the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, and most recently, US$3.85mil to aid relief in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

Li was born in Chaozhou, Guangdong, China in 1928. The Li family shifted to Hong Kong in 1940 due to the financial turmoil in China.

The family stayed with Li’s wealthy uncle in Hong Kong that time and the arrogance of Li’s uncle with his immense wealth ignited Li’s determination to make a place for himself in the world.

After Li’s father passed away, he was forced to leave school before the age of 15 to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of his family; he worked at a plastic trading company.

With sheer determination and hard work, Li started his own company, Cheung Kong Industries in 1950. Li developed and expanded his company from a plastics maker to a leading real estate investment company in Hong Kong. The company was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972.

Today, Li is the chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd and Cheung Kong Holdings. He is now the world’s largest operator of container terminals and the world’s largest health and beauty retailer.

In 2006, Li pledged to donate one-third of his fortune, which is estimated at over US$10bil, to charity and philanthropic projects throughout the world.

Megastar in philanthropy

Besides businessmen, the Chinese Kung Fu movie star Jet Li recently made some headlines in philanthropy with its newly formed One Foundation.

This Beijing-born martial arts champ, who has managed to capture the hearts of both eastern and western martial arts fans, has set a mission to shield billions of disaster stricken victims in Asia.

An unforgettable real-life horror experience has changed him forever. After he was caught up in the devastating tsunami that hit on Dec 26, 2004 when he was on holiday with family in Maldives, he realised that a person’s power and popularity does not help at all when disasters hit.

That’s how Li’s One Foundation was born. On Jan 2, 2005, Li gave away 500,000 yuan for the victims of tsunami and he used another 500,000 yuan to start a foundation.

The One Foundation has its own set of auditors, lawyers and accountants to ensure every cent spent is accountable. It is also managed by a 15-member team.

Li, 45, has taken a year off his acting career to garner contribution towards the fund; since inception, he and his friends have been providing the allocations. The foundation has aided victims in seven natural disasters in Asia, including the Sichuan earthquake and the hurricane in Myanmar.

“I have gone through three steps in my life – martial arts, movies and now, the foundation. This foundation is where my heart is; it is my life, my home, my belief, and my dream. I also need to put China somewhere (in the world of philanthropy),” Li had said.

He has been meeting with many world leaders including Bill Clinton, the princess of Thailand , Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Tony Blair to champion the One Foundation cause. He wants to bring people together for a good cause.

He also roped in over 300 people to help, including some of his friends from the movie world like Jackie Chan and Datuk Michelle Yeoh. Others include businessmen, lawyers, professors and athletes.

“The main focus of the foundation is to provide aid to the people hit by disasters,” he said. The concept behind the foundation is ‘’one person, one dollar, one month.”

This is based on the idea that each person who can, donates one dollar per month and the money will just grow to help others.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story