The rich in China often take flak for being tight-fisted when it comes to charity - but a new report finds that some are more generous than Bill Gates or Warren Buffett when it comes to opening their purses for a good cause.

Shenzhen hotel entrepreneur Yu Pengnian, 85, is one. He tops the list of 100 top philanthropists last year with 2 billion yuan ($258 million) - almost all his wealth - since 2003. Most of the money went toward providing free cataract surgery for about 100,000 people.

Another is Niu Gensheng, chairman of Mengniu Group, who has promised to donate all his shares at the diary group to a charitable fund he set up in 2005. 

The 2007 Hurun Report's Chinese Philanthropists List, compiled by Briton Rupert Hoogewerf, finds that 30 of the top 100 richest Chinese were also among the 100 most generous in 2006, up from 20 the previous year.

"Almost all the top 100 rich Chinese are considering the concept of charity... With a good policy environment, more and more wealthy people are setting up their own charitable funds." Hoogwerf said while releasing the list, the fourth since he began compiling the list in 2003.

Yang Lan & Wu Zheng

Of the total of 10 billion yuan ($1.29 billion) donated last year, the amount given by the 100 was 3.9 billion yuan ($505 million) compared with 3.75 billion yuan ($436 million) the previous year.

Education, social welfare and poverty alleviation attracted the most donors.

But experts want a better social and legal environment to promote giving by the wealthy.

According to Zhang Liwei, deputy secretary-general of the Christian charity Amity Foundation, it takes several months to seek a personal income tax deduction for donations.

"More swift administrative procedures and fairer regulations are needed," said Zhang.

Zhang admitted considerable progress had been made when the government raised the tax deduction level to 12 percent for public welfare donations under the new Corporate Income Tax Law, up from the previous 3 percent.

"It will greatly encourage firms to donate," Zhang said, pointing out that unlike in other countries, where individual donations account for 70-80 percent of the total, most donations in China are by enterprises.

Liu Xuanguo, assistant secretary-general of the Chinese Red Cross Foundation, attributes the lack of public confidence in various charity foundations to relative lack of development of the sector. 

Three-quarters of the money donated by the top 100 was channelled into foundations set up or monitored by the donors themselves, according to the survey.

(China Daily 04/12/2007 page1)

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