Chinese businessman donates entire fortune to charity

BEIJING - A Chinese businessman who says “I like to support the poor because I used to be poor” has donated his entire fortune of 8.2 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) to charity, a media report said Friday.

Yu Pengnian, 88, a hotel owner and real estate dealer in Shenzhen city, Thursday donated his remaining assets worth 3.2 billion yuan to the Hong Kong-based Yu Pengnian Foundation - a charity named after him.

The businessman had earlier donated a sum of $910 million to charity over a period of five years.

“This will be my last donation. I have nothing more to give away. It will all be for charity, no part of it will be inherited by anyone, no part will be used to do business or for investments,” Yu was quoted as saying by China Daily.

Yu hoped his move would encourage other Chinese billionaires to do more, and added that his fortune paled in comparison to some other business magnates in Hong Kong and on the Chinese mainland.

“My fortune is just a drop in the bucket compared to them but I have a point of view that is very different from others, I will not leave my fortune to my children,” he said.

“If my children are more capable than me, it’s not necessary to leave a lot of money to them. If they are incompetent, a lot of money will only be harmful to them,” he said.

The foundation makes donations to health, education and disaster relief projects and has so far funded over 150,000 cataract removal operations in China since 2003. Yu makes donations to patients with cataract because he once suffered from the same disease.

Having built his business from scratch, Yu attributed his philanthropic motivation to the hardship he underwent when he was young, he said. “I like to support the poor because I used to be poor and I understand the misery of the poor people.”

“Providing timely help to the poor and making them live better are my aim and wish,” he said.