Can Buffett and Gates Hope to Convert China's Wealthy to Philanthropy?

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American billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have announced they will come to China in September to ask for donations from the country's rising ranks of the wealthy and rich. Chinese newspaperman Shi Shusi offers the two famous entrepreneurs and philanthropists advice, and some insights into China’s philanthropy problem:

Buffett and Gates may have seen how fast China's wealthy are climbing the ranks of world's richest, how the majority have been wallowing in luxury spending, and how even more are cheapskates when it comes to donating to charities. These could be the observations (albeit, correct ones), which caused them to want to come over to China in September, much like world citizen Bai Qiu En (Dr. Norman Bethune) did when civil war had broken out in China, with a vision to help transform China for the better. Buffett has said: “We hope that other countries will also follow suit. If they feel like what we're doing is worthwhile and would like to put it into practice, then we're all very excited about that prospect.”

I would advise them to not get too excited just yet.

First off, it will be hard for them to actually locate China's wealthy, even though Hurun's Rich List does offer some clues. There is a prevalent feeling of distrust and envy for the wealthy in China; this means that the rich need to keep a low profile, so as to not draw unwanted attention. Of course, there are others who have abused their power in office to embezzle their wealth, so they won’t dare admit to being well-off either – otherwise, they'd risk discovery by the anti-graft righteous, and land in jail first before they can make any donations.

Even if after much prodding and networking, the two actually found some Chinese wealthy with legitimate funds, it'd still be a long haul to get them to donate. This is because China's economy is still in its early development stages. Many enterprises are still at the low-end of the global production chain. It can be expected that these wealthy would like to keep their funds and invest their money in their companies, expanding and optimizing hard assets like technology and company infrastructure to pave the way for them to become multinationals in the future. Bottom line, the pressing needs of their companies come first before philanthropy.

On the other hand, there is an utter lack of a philanthropist heritage in Chinese culture. This is a society that has lost their search for deeper meaning in life, a society that has been experiencing a degradation of traditional morals. In the quest for bigger and better materialistic things, the Chinese wealthy know only the most primitive and practical way of achieving self-worth – to go after what's attainable in this life. They don't care about what's awaiting in the afterlife – they don't believe in it, except for their children and grandchildren maybe. And their progeny may only squander away the wealth after their passing.

Another reason is the mere fact that a governmental/societal support system for establishing charities is virtually non-existent at the moment. Because China as a society is still in transition, and its commercial and economic laws are still in their infancy, there can't be but very little foundation to build independently operating charities and non-profit social organizations. For example, in China, if you wish to get into charity, you'd need first find some bigger administrative organization recognized by the government, and operate your group through them. Although there has been some growth seen with these type of “hinged” organizations, there are merely a little over 2,000 in operation at the moment – a huge, gaping difference from the one million such organizations in the US.