Chinese tech billionaires have recently donated a lot of money to charities, as the Chinese authorities are cracking down on the country’s big tech companies. Connoisseurs suspect that the billionaires want to appear in a good light with the government and the public.
Xiaomi co-founder Lei Jun has donated $2.2 billion in shares of the company to two charities, according to documents from the Hong Kong stock exchange. Last month, the founders of meal delivery service Meituan and TikTok mother ByteDance also gave away large sums of money to charities.
Pony Ma, the CEO of tech giant Tencent and the second richest man in China, said he would give away $7.7 billion in April to help fight poverty in rural China, for example.
Recently, the Chinese authorities have been working hard to limit the power of the big tech groups. In addition, Beijing is imposing more and more restrictive measures regarding financial services, cybersecurity, and foreign stock exchange listings.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that economic development in his country is uneven and that common prosperity should be the ultimate goal for China.
