CHINA-INTERNAL: PHILANTHROPY
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The Chinese real estate company SOHO China is setting up a $100 million endowment to send underprivileged Chinese children to elite universities around the world. Soho’s Chief Executive Zhang Xin and her husband,Pan Shiyi, launched the initiative on July 15 when they signed a US$15 million 'gift agreement' with USA's Harvard University. In a telephone interview Ms Zhang Xin said “Getting the best education should not only be for those who have the means – it should be for those with the talent.” She said there are many bright students from poorer families studying in China who hesitate to apply. She said that she and her husband want those families to know that Soho scholarship money is available and “if you’re good enough you should apply.” They plan to set up similar endowments with colleges in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. More than 235,000 Chinese students are presently (2012-2013 school year) studying in the US. The SOHO China foundation also builds schools in rural areas of the western Chinese provinces of Qinghai and Gansu, where Mr. Pan grew up.
Ms. Zhang Xin was a factory worker in Hong Kong before studying on full scholarships at the University of Sussex and Cambridge University in UK. She later became an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Pan Shiyi grew up in an impoverished part of western China. The Shanghai-based research firm Hurun Report, which publishes an annual listing of the wealthiest people in China, has valued their combined wealth at approx. US$ 3.6 billion.
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