Stingy Chinese tycoons face US billionaires
Source: Global Times
[22:17 August 19 2010]
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By Rong Xiaoqing
Reporters like to ask powerful interview subjects what keeps them up at night.
The answers can surprise.
Now, if they could pose that question to the super rich in China, I wouldn't be surprised to find Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's upcoming China trip on their list of nightmares.
Since the two billionaires announced their plan two months ago to persuade the wealthiest people in the world to donate at least half of their assets to charities, they have made impressive progress, recruiting 40 American billionaires to the pledge.
Now they plan to go east to China, a country enjoying the world's fastest growth in numbers of millionaires in 2009.
They may only mean to have an amiable talk rather than putting massive pressure on any individual. Still, to be placed on the guest list of the two gurus may be a thorny honor for rich Chinese. In a country that is known both for the newly super rich and the widening disparity in income between the rich and the poor, an invitation from Gates and Buffett is almost a guaranteed reservation for a public grilling.
Indeed, the generosity of the rich has been under close scrutiny in recent years, particularly after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, which triggered unprecedented charitable donations from the general public and criticism of the rich for not digging deep enough into their pockets or for promising more than they delivered.
Gates and Buffett's movement has already triggered attacks from the media and netizens on the rich in China for not being as philanthropic as their American peers. Among the possible reasons are the close family ties that encourage the wealthy to pass their money to their kids and the lack of the tax incentives that exist in the West.
Some of the criticism may be well deserved. After all, the rich Chinese are not known for their generosity.
According to the China Charity and Donation Information Center, 14 percent of the charities received in China last year came from abroad.
And among the domestic giving, which equaled just 0.35 percent of GDP, only 23 percent came from individuals. In comparison, charitable giving in the US last year, which totaled $300 billion, was 2.1 percent of GDP, and 75 percent came from individuals.
Certainly, although Gates and Buffett deserve lots of admiration, they cannot be mistaken for the sole pillars of American philanthropy.
In the US, millionaires make up 7 percent of households. But according to the nonprofit pressure group Independent Sector, nearly 90 percent of American households give to charities, and the donations average 3.2 percent of their income, or $1,620 per year.
Of course, with a per-capita GDP of $3,678, average Chinese may not have as many discretionary funds at their disposal as Americans do, who enjoy a per-capita GDP of $46,381. Many Chinese households are still struggling to make ends meet.
But charitable giving doesn't have to be in cash, it could be through the passing on of clothes that have been outgrown to someone in need, or donating time and skills. A caring society is also one where you offer your seat to a senior on the bus.
Some of this may sound too trivial to be associated with the big word "philanthropy." But anyone familiar with philanthropy knows the concept always consists of two stories.
The first one is about a guy driving along the river. He sees some babies floating in the water and many people trying to pull them out. But the babies just kept coming. Instead of stopping to help, he drives upstream. "Let's see why the babies are in the river and fix that," he said.
In the second story, a little boy and his parents see a lot of starfish struggling for life on a beach. When the boy asks the parents how to rescue the fish, they tell him there are too many of them and they cannot rescue all. He picks up one and throws it back into the sea. "At least I made a difference to this one," he said.
Gates and Buffett apparently have been adopting the first model. And whether the rich Chinese will join the efforts to save the world remains to be seen. But the rest of us don't have to be wealthy to pick up a starfish and throw it back into the ocean.
The author is a New York-based journalist. rong_xiaoqing@ hotmail.com
