The ranks of the super rich in China continue to grow — there are a third more renminbi billionaires this year than last, according to today’s new China Rich List, from the Hurun Report — but philanthropy has slowly begun to thin the ranks as well, says Hurun.
Yu Pengnian, a property tycoon who ranked number 432 in last year’s list, fell off the chart altogether this year because he gave all of his money away. In April, the octogenarian Shenzhen real estate and hotel entrepreneur donated over $1bn to charity.
“This will be my last donation. I have nothing more to give away,” he said at the time. “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,” he was quoted as saying in People’s Daily.