Should There Be a Minimum for Billionaires’ Donations?

Should There Be a Minimum for Billionaires’ Donations?

On June 21, at the inauguration of the Beijing Normal University One Foundation Philanthropy Research Institute, Wang Zhenyao, the institute’s Dean and former Director of the Social Welfare and Charity Promotion Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, proposed it should be made mandatory for Chinese billionaires to donate at least 1 million yuan ($147,000) a year to charity.

He said his proposal was based on Bill Gates and Warren E. Buffett calling on wealthy people to devote half of their wealth to public welfare and charitable causes. The Chinese public point their fngers at the large number of Chinese billionaires who are rich but irresponsible and even disregard society.

Some people worry compulsory regulation is against the principle of making donations because of one’s own free will while others complain the 1-million-yuan bottom line is too low. Wang’s suggestion has ignited the topic of charitable donation among the Chinese public.

Inescapable responsibilities

Jiang Debin (www.china.com.cn): Billionaires’ wealth comes from society and they are only temporary managers of the wealth. Ultimately, their wealth will be returned to society in various forms. It has long been a consensus billionaires, particularly entrepreneurs, should try to fulfll social responsibilities through tangible actions. The world’s top rich such as Bill Gates and Warren E. Buffett donated more than half of their wealth to charitable causes. By comparison, a 1-million-yuan bottom line is not that great.

The 2010 Hurun Report on China’s wealthiest people says the country now accommodates more than 55,000 billionaires. China’s charitable donations reached a record high in 2008, with the total giving that year amounting to 107 billion yuan ($15.74 billion). If every billionaire donated 1 million yuan every year, the amount would top 55 billion yuan ($8.09 billion), almost half the 2008 total. If billionaires’ donations become a regular practice, China’s charitable causes will surely make great headway.

Of course, the progress of China’s charitable causes can not depend on billionaires and millionaires. The whole of society’s efforts are needed. Wealthy people, however, can set an example and play a leading role in promoting charity.

Wealth can be very powerful. The more wealth you possess, the bigger infuence you have on society. At the same time, you should undertake more social responsibilities. Money is not the problem to China’s wealthiest people. What they widely lack is a sense of being charitable and of social responsibility.

Tang Weiyi (Chongqing Morning Post): China now has 875,000 multi-millionaires, 55,000 of them are billionaires. These statistics show China’s wealthy class is totally capable of charitable works.

But having enough money is not enough to promote one’s interest in charity.

A yearly donation of 1 million yuan from every billionaire is a good suggestion. If this practice can be pushed forward among China’s wealthiest people, China’s charitable causes will develop soundly and rapidly. To make this a fxed system, the country needs to do more work in improving the charity environment.

LI SHIGONG

Charitable causes must be made more transparent, with the support of explicit policies and systems, so billionaire donors know how their donations will be spent. Meanwhile, donations must bring honor. The government and the whole of society must show certain respect to billionaires who are actively involved in charitable causes.

Wang Zhishun (www.eastday.com): Setting a price tag for billionaires’ annual donations to charity to fulfill their social responsibility is controversial. Opponents are likely to accuse these demands as “waging a war against the rich.” China’s billionaires should, however, seriously think about this suggestion against the social background of widening gap between the rich and the poor and some wealthy people’s lack of enthusiasm about charity.

After Wang’s proposition was reported, many people voiced opposition instead of support online out of concern the donations could be embezzled or pocketed by power-abusing offcials or government departments.

This concern is somewhat justified and refects harsh reality. We should separate encouraging the rich to contribute to charity from eliminating corruption. The rich cannot defer all charitable efforts until corruption is totally eliminated.

Chen Guangbiao, a successful businessman known as China’s most generous philanthropist, has donated a total of 1.23 billion yuan ($180.88 million) to society, benefting more than 600,000 people. During his involvement in philanthropic causes, Chen must also have been disappointed by problems that occurred in reality, but it has never stopped him from contributing. I guess that is because he gets joy from helping others.

Whether an annual donation of 1 million yuan is an appropriate benchmark for billionaires’ social responsibility is debatable. Billionaires shouldn’t reject the suggestion on the ground corruption has not been eliminated.

Unnecessary bottom line

Zou Xi (www.hanminzu.com): Every citizen and organization should take on their social responsibilities, which have both material and spiritual dimensions. To measure the fulfllment of social responsibility by the standard of cash donations alone is too pragmatic. A donation should be totally voluntary while donating to show one’s sense of social responsibility is questionable even if the money does go to charitable causes.

A person’s sense of social responsibility should be judged on his or her daily conduct. As for billionaires, if they run their enterprises successfully, take good care of their employees, obey all the laws and regulations and pay taxes on time, how can you say that they have no sense of social responsibility even if they don’t donate a penny to society?

We should encourage wealthy people to donate to charitable causes to repay the com-munity since that’s where their wealth comes from. Helping all members of a community to live harmoniously together is also a virtue and complies with developmental trends in human society. But the means of repayment should be up to the choice of the benefactors, who shouldn’t be forced to make a donation. By taking advantage of freer access to the media, some celebrities are going to pollute the social environment for donors and cause distortion about a bottom line that is moral—and that should be prevented.

Lian Peng (Daily Sunshine): Behind the wealthy people’s lack of enthusiasm in donating to charitable causes are deeprooted management loopholes. Some millionaires or billionaires who want to repay society find themselves short of channels. In 2009, a domestic magazine conducted a survey on 792 private entrepreneurs with personal assets of more than 10 million yuan ($1.47 million). As many as 64.2 percent were not satisfed with the effects of their donations due to the lack of transparency, while 9 percent of respondents seldom donated money to charity.

Undeniably, due to a lack of transparency in charity operations, a lot of donations have been embezzled by government departments or pocketed by corrupt offcials instead of being spent on meaningful programs.

We shouldn’t criticize the mercilessness of the rich by claiming to have high moral standards or wage a war against the rich by setting a standard for billionaires’ donations.

Promoting a culture of charity in China does not only require the establishment of charity operations by capable organizations and individuals, but also the creation of a favorable environment for charitable organizations, such as offering citizens tax breaks for donating to charitable causes.

Liang Jiangtao (Hefei Evening News): In China, there have appeared a good number of models of morality who contribute generously to charitable causes in recent years. But the development of philanthropic donations is not without handicaps. First, the management of donated money and items has to be improved. Second, there have been scandals where donors write rubber checks for publicity’s sake or make donations because of moral blackmail. These scandals make the public suspect donations to charity are often linked to exterior motives.

Charitable donations need to be supported by a favorable social environment. The top priority is to involve greater numbers of individuals, including billionaires, in charitable causes. This does not mean setting a limit for donations but creating a viable system of regulation of charity that will boost everyone’s confdence in charitable causes.