【2010.9.6 每日电讯报】Chinese billionaires shy away from Bill Gates charity dinner

rhapsody

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ ... charity-dinner.html

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has accused Chinese billionaires of refusing an invitation to a gala event because they are nervous about being buttonholed for donations to charity.

The dinner on September 29 had planned to gather "dozens" of China's richest people together in order to support the Gates Foundation, which funds Aids charities in China among other projects.

But the organisers said that some of the invitations had been nervously declined. "After the invitations were sent out, a number of people called to query if they would be asked to donate at the function. So far, a small group has turned down the invitations," said Ye Lei, the head of the foundation in China said.

Mr Gates, the founder of Microsoft, and Warren Buffett, who runs his own investment fund, announced in August they had already persuaded more than 40 billionaires in the United States to give half their fortune to charity.

That announcement had sent a ripple of panic among Chinese guests, explained a spokesman for the foundation. "This gala was originally supposed to be held in March. Then it was delayed and the timing of it, so soon after the announcement about the US donations, understandably made some of the Chinese concerned about being put in an awkward position," he said.

The foundation said it is now planning to write letters to all the invitees to reassure them that the dinner is not a fund-raising event, but an opportunity to "get to know" each other. "We understand the US charity model will not suit China," said the spokesman.

The charity would not confirm its guest list, or who had turned down the invitation but Zhang Xin, the chief executive of SOHO China, a property developer and Wang Chuanfu, the head of car and battery maker BYD and the richest man in China with a fortune of £3.5 billion, were expected to attend.

Also expected are Duan Yongping, who spent $620,100 (£401,000) to have dinner with Mr Buffett in 2006, and Zhao Danyang, who spent $2.1 million for the same honour in 2008.

China has the second-largest number of billionaires in the world, after the United States. Jin Jingping, a professor at Peking University, estimated that more than 60 per cent of Chinese entrepreneurs have also donated money to charity, but that they tend to shun publicity and attention.

"Compared to the US, some wealthy people in China seem more concerned about their family's wellbeing. But that does not mean they are misers," he said.

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fukgm

要等“保住改革开放经济成果”的政改结束之后他们才能大模大样地上镜“意思意思”

fukgm

哦，不，纠正一下
他们会是以“海外华人、侨胞”的身份，居高临下的望着我们，然后伸出“友爱”的双手，支援国家建设。
这份爱国的赤胆忠心是多么滴可贵呀~