{"id":17378,"date":"2014-08-02T03:08:17","date_gmt":"2014-08-02T03:08:17","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-15T14:16:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T14:16:21","slug":"chinese-billionaires-criticized-for-giving-harvard-15m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=17378","title":{"rendered":"Chinese billionaires criticized for giving Harvard $15m"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Chinese billionaire couple have faced a deluge of criticism for donating $15 million to one of the richest and most prestigious universities in the US, with Internet users saying it would be better spent on students in China.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin, the husband-and-wife duo behind real estate giant SOHO China, are giving $100 million to fund disadvantaged Chinese students at top universities across the globe.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first stage of the program was last week’s gift to Harvard, widely regarded as one of the world’s best universities.<\/p>\n

Pan is not only one of China’s wealthiest people but also one of the country’s most-celebrated “Big V” bloggers<\/strong>, with nearly 17 million followers on Sina Weibo, at times drawing attention from the authorities.<\/p>\n

China is the largest single source country for international students in the United States, providing more than a quarter of all foreign students,<\/strong> according to the Institute of International Education.<\/p>\n

Many of those young people’s studies are funded by their families, but Zhang told the Wall Street Journal that the firm’s “SOHO China Scholarships” will be aimed at encouraging less-well-off Chinese students to apply to study abroad.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nonetheless some users of Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter equivalent, sharply criticized Pan and Zhang, questioning the couple’s motives and arguing that disadvantaged students within China are more deserving of help.<\/p>\n

“They despise their own country and people,” one Sina Weibo user wrote Thursday.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t matter… The rise of China and Chinese higher education is historically inevitable,” added the poster, who uses the name “Boycott Japanese goods forever”.<\/p>\n

Another user added: “Taking Chinese people’s money and giving it to people who are able to study in America — what a great definition of ‘poverty’!”<\/p>\n

Others defended the decision by the couple, who have also established a foundation to support education in rural areas of China.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zhang responded to the criticism on her own Weibo account, writing that without funding for poor students, good education would be reserved for the wealthy.<\/p>\n

Pan has previously driven public opinion online on a variety of issues, and incurred the government’s wrath by posting details of Beijing’s dirty air levels, which at the time were not officially released.<\/p>\n

At a meeting in mid-August, one of China’s top officials responsible for Internet censorship told Pan and other well-known bloggers to be “more positive and constructive” in their online comments, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.<\/p>\n

Pan was later shown in an interview with state broadcaster CCTV, where he appeared contrite and warned of the dangers of “casual” online posts.<\/p>\n

Source AP<\/em>
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