Nation's 'First Charitarian' touts his deeds

Netizens call him "Brother Biao". His certificates of honor are piled four meters high.

He is Chen Guangbiao, board chairman of Jiangsu Huangpu Recycle Resources Use Co Ltd, and "the First Charitarian" in China. In the past 10 years, his donations were worth 713 million yuan, and more than 200,000 people received his help, though he is far from being the richest man in China, or even the richest in Jiangsu.

Unlike those successful men who are soft-spoken and reserved, Chen, 40, likes talking and laughing, and doesn't mind being blamed for showing off via his donations. "Yes, if I donate 1 million yuan, I want 6.5 billion people to know that. What I want is more people to join me," said Chen at a recent social responsibilities forum organized by China Charity Federation and the CPPCC News on March 8.

"Each penny I earned has the contributions of party and people, and I want to share them with the society," said Chen.

At the forum, Chen said he would bring health, sanitary conditions and education to the farthest, the highest and hardest places in Tibet, and even challenged the medical devices industry and advocated for the price of medicine to drop by at least 30 percent.

After the speech, Chen asked Ge Junjie, vice president of Bright Food (Group) Co Ltd, to donate for the minority nationality area. "You have an annual sales volume of 70 billion yuan, compared with our 7 billion yuan; then, you take out 200 million yuan, and we take 20 million yuan?"

Five days ahead of the forum at the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Chen suggested collecting the rich people's estate tax with the rate of at least 60 percent.

In a survey conducted by the Netease website, Chen's estate tax proposal received support from more than 10,000 surveyed, against 1,000 who were opposed.

Chen's kindness has developed with his business sense.

At the age of 10, he fetched water after school and sold it to the town 1.5 kilometers away at one fen (the minimum currency unit in China) to drink at your will. His earnings not only covered his tuition fees, but those of his neighbor as well. When he was 17, his was the first young 10,000-yuan household.

In 1998, he set up Jiangsu Huangpu Investment (Group) Co Ltd, a comprehensive private-owned strategic investment company, and the projects cover new material construction, housing development, power supporting equipment, and recycling.

In the same year, he earned 200,000 yuan, and donated 30,000 yuan to a 9-year-old girl with leukemia. The next year, he took 280,000 yuan from his earned 600,000 yuan and built a 4.8-km road, school and an open fair for his hometown.

Since 2002, Chen's company has donated nearly 10,000 yuan to Nanjing Municipality Fire Bureau. In the SARS crisis of 2003, Chen donated 800 temperature measure scopes and 2 million yuan in cash to the medical institutions in Jiangsu.

In 2005, the company's sales volume reached 700 million yuan, with a profit of 400 million yuan, according to China Philanthropy Times.

At the forum on March 8, business leaders were complaining that their performance was not good and they could not cut staff or salary because of their social responsibility in the financial crisis. However, Chen said last month his company newly recruited 500 members, and the crisis has had a limited effect on him.

In 2008, after the May 12 earthquake, Chen, as the first civilian rescue team leader, raced to quake-hit Sichuan province with 60 sets of engineering machines for rescue and relief, almost arriving as the same time as the army. In his 54 days there, he helped save 128 lives, and donated 7.85 million yuan, 2,300 tents, 23,000 radios and 1,000 TVs, according to a report from People's Daily online.

"People in the country now know me for my rescue in the earthquake; every day I receive calls, and my business is better than ever," said Chen. "That is the return of society for what I have done for the society."

Years of charity work have brought Chen many rewards, including earthquake relief model by the State Council and the Central Military Commission, 10 outstanding volunteers in China, and China Charity Reward for four consecutive years.

Naming Mother Teresa as his idol, Chen says he can't do it all alone. He receives thousands of letters from individuals, enterprises and groups asking for help. "Sometimes I do not know if they are true or not, and those who did not get help may curse you," said Chen. "Even some officials came to my door and asked me to donate. If I refuse, they will arrange the tax department to check up as revenge."

"Doing one good thing is not difficult, but it is hard to do it in all your life. My ability is limited and we do need more rich friends to help them," said Chen.

Born in a poor family in Jiangsu province in 1968, Chen still remembers that in his first 10 years, he never ate one piece of meat, or a full piece of steamed bread. And hunger cost the lives of a brother and a sister.

He once said his three wishes when he was a child were eating a piece of meat in Spring Festival, receiving others' help, and being a soldier.

"More charitable, happier, living in the happiness of helping others is greater than dying in the golden mountain," said Chen.

(China Daily 04/06/2009 page10)