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Emma Ma

Mandy Zuo

China’s tycoons have reined in their charitable donations amid weaker-than-expected economic momentum, and among those that are still giving, many are redirecting their wealth towards advancing scientific development and supporting education.
The latest example is Zhang Yiming, the 43-year-old billionaire founder of TikTok owner ByteDance, who donated 200 million yuan (US$29.5 million) to the Fangmei Charitable Fund on Tuesday. The fund was established in Zhang’s hometown of Longyan, in southeastern China’s Fujian province, in 2021.
The money has been earmarked for public science education, nurturing students’ interests and improving educational infrastructure. Zhang separately donated an additional 100 million yuan to improve healthcare services in Longyan, taking his total donations to his hometown over the past five years to 1.1 billion yuan.
Zhang is one of many following the same path.
One example is Yang Yuanqing, the chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group – the world’s largest personal computer maker – who donated 200 million yuan to his alma mater, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in April for campus renovation projects.
Prominent Chinese investor Chen Guangming donated more than 100 million yuan to the same university in January, primarily to support scientific research and innovation. Sun Piaoyang, chairman of Hengrui Pharma, gave 150 million yuan to China Pharmaceutical University this month for similar purposes.
“Much of the philanthropic giving in the United States has flowed to universities to back scientific research and innovation,” said Tsinghua University professor Deng Guosheng, who studies the development of non-governmental organisations and philanthropy. China, he added, has seen a comparable trend.
“The shift stemmed from the central government’s push to advance scientific education, alongside encouragement for donations that help bolster China’s technological capabilities,” Deng said.
While Chinese tycoons’ philanthropic giving has grown more targeted, the overall volume of donations has trended lower over the past three years.
We visited several foundations recently, and it appeared donations would keep falling this year
Deng Guosheng, Tsinghua University
According to the Hurun China Philanthropy List, 14 business leaders each donated more than 100 million yuan last year, with their combined total topping 3.8 billion yuan. In 2022, 49 donors gave 72.8 billion yuan.
One major driver of the decline has been the prolonged slump in the real estate sector. The industry once boasted prolific givers including Yang Guoqiang, the founder of Guangdong-based developer Country Garden, and Xu Jiayin of Evergrande.
“The reason the number of donors fell in 2025 was mainly that some entrepreneurs have seen their assets shrink over the past three years, and philanthropy generally reflected wealth generated in the preceding year,” Hurun Media chairman Rupert Hoogewerf said on the Shanghai-based research group’s social media account in November.
Deng said the decline was linked to the macroeconomic environment.
“Not only big-ticket donations, but public giving also declined,” he said. “Meanwhile, scandals within the sector have eroded the credibility of philanthropy. We visited several foundations recently, and it appeared donations would keep falling this year.”
Revisions to the country’s Charity Law, which entered into force in 2024 – eight years after the law’s initial adoption – increased oversight, simplified the registration process for charitable organisations and shortened the waiting period for public fundraising credential applications, measures intended to increase philanthropic giving.
A survey conducted by Yang Haibin, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s (CUHK) business school, and two professors from Wuhan’s Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2024 found that donations designed to advance education could help business leaders boost their prestige and also tackle social and environmental challenges.
But that represented only one set of considerations for the respondents to the survey, who came from 995 listed firms across nine industries that debuted on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges between 2004 and 2015.
Another was that corporate giving boosted a company’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) prospects.
“Charitable contributions could bolster firms’ reputations, and as a result, companies with M&A plans had stronger incentives to donate … Chinese people often judge a company’s social responsibility and awareness by its philanthropic activity,” Yang said on CUHK’s website.


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One major driver of overall decline in corporate donations has been the prolonged slump in country’s real estate sector


One major driver of overall decline in corporate donations has been the prolonged slump in country’s real estate sector.


China’s tycoons are restructuring their charitable donations. Where is that money going?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}One major driver of overall decline in corporate donations has been the prolonged slump in country’s real estate sector

One major driver of overall decline in corporate donations has been the prolonged slump in country’s real estate sector