Photo: qq.com

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.

Of course, how charitable deeds are recognized, and how the donations are managed still lack understanding and maturity in China. For example, government policies regarding tax deduction and other tax benefits that most wealthy do gooders would care about when giving donations are still very much “murky waters” – and even more difficult to implement. The novel method of donating stocks is just way ahead of its time in China, as there are no clear laws or stipulations in regards to that matter, and the officials are ever so confused about something that is neither cash nor check. Last year, Tang Jun imitated Gates by helping Chen Fashu, the richest man in Fujian, donate stocks, and earned the latter the glorious recognition of being a “top philanthropist” in China. A year later, Chen's been accused of “donation fraud”.

Most importantly, however, there is still an even more fundamental difference between US and Chinese societies when it comes to philanthropy. Money and wealth in American society are something of an open topic – even the government's spending is held accountable – and their laws for governing and managing charities and social organizations are mature and well-developed, creating a merit system that is supervised by society, for society. Thus, it is possible for them to ensure the quality and desired effects of charitable donations and acts. In China, however, many of the charitable acts that have been preceded with much gong-banging and firecracker lighting have in fact become mere shows for publicity and fame – owner of the magazine Philanthropists, Wang Liwei, once said, correctly, that only 7% of all promised donations are actually realized in China.

Thus, with this type of a societal backdrop, Buffett and Gates coming to spread their vision for a more charitable China, unfortunately, can have very little to dismal effect. They might still receive a warm round of applause and much anticipated fervor from China's wealthy – these people are on the lookout for anything that could be potentially good for the image of their country and their own name, so they're not short of enthusiasm when pledging to donate this and that thousands of yuan. But in the end, theirs is a pledge that would be more than difficult to implement, and is thus rendered nothing other than empty words. I would advise that Buffett and Gates watch a little caricature skit done by Zhao Benshan for CCTV New Year's Gala entitled “Mai Guai” or “Selling Crutch and Limp” – the Chinese are ingenious deceivers and salesmen. 

Even though prospects look dim at the moment when it comes to Buffett and Gates converting Chinese wealthy to philanthropy, I'd still like very much for them to come. Aside from asking for donations, I'd be much more inclined to listen to them deliver the message: “I've always felt that the right thing to do is not about giving our children money, but to have our future generations inherit a better world, a world made better by our charitable deeds and actions. Our children will benefit a lot more from a beautiful world than the few scraps of riches we're able to scavenger for them.”

After all, if someone with wealth and influence would not be inclined to promote better morals and values for society and country, set an example through their deeds, inspire others to do the same – then they can never truly win respect from the world and our views of life can but be unmotivated and senseless.

Author Shi Shusi graduated from Renmin University having majored in journalism. He is director of major news office at Workers' Daily, and has won numerous national and provincial awards for his news commentaries and articles.

Source: blog.ifeng.com
 

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