REGIONAL> Highlights
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REGIONAL> Highlights
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Friends in need
By BAO DAO (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-26 10:46  On May 12, just hours after the killer earthquake hit Southwestern China's Sichuan province, employees at Shenzhen-based telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies received a notice at the internal corporate communications platform urging them make donations to the victims. The response was overwhelming. By 18:00 May 16, donations hit 15.3 million yuan, not including those by Huawei's overseas employees who donated money through local Red Cross agencies. Besides that, privately held Huawei also made a corporate donation of 5 million yuan in cash and sent much-needed telecom equipment and mobile phones worth millions of US dollars to the quake-hit areas. It has also flew about 200 engineers and technicians to Sichuan to help telephone operators restore disrupted communications. With compelling images and stories from the quake-hit areas where more than 40,000 lives have been claimed tugging at the heartstrings of people around the world, Chinese private businesses like Huawei are making high-profile donations to aid the relief efforts. And their generosity, spurred by both the patriotic desire and commitment to the local community, is pushing their philanthropy to a new high. Hitting the headlines last week was Tianjin Rockcheck Steel Group. At an earthquake relief fund-raising event at China Central Television (CCTV), Zhang Xiangqing, chairman of Rockcheck, announced an initial donation of 30 million yuan but quickly increased it to 100 million yuan on the TV show, which took many by surprise. Zhang was a survivor of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake which flattened Tangshan, a city in Hebei province, and killed hundreds of thousands of people including Zhang's parents. Zhang and his wife own a 100 percent stake in the company, meaning the couple will donate the money themselves. The JDB Group, a private beverage company best known in China for its popular herbal tea Wang Laoji, and Shandong-based Rizhao Steel, also topped the headlines by donating 100 million each. China's private businesses have been pioneers in the country's philanthropies. In 1994, ten private entrepreneurs including New Hope Group chairman Liu Yonghao, launched the China Guangcai Program, initially targeting the anti-poverty effort. Annual donations by the program exceeded 17 billion yuan by 2006, compared to 386 million yuan in 1997. Despite that, most private businesses have been keeping low profiles, unlike State-owned enterprises (SOEs) which usually made public announcements for donations, largely in response to the government's calls in times of trouble. And private businesses have been taking the lead to expand the country's charities. For instance, Huawei quietly donated 15 million yuan in cash and 25 million yuan in wireless telecom equipment when an enormous flood hit East China in 1998. And it was one of the few Chinese companies making donations when the killer tsunami hit Southeastern Asian countries in 2004 and when hurricane Katrina hit the southeastern coast of the United States in 2005. |
