Billionaires' banquet spurs peasant-turned businessman to give
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A peasant-turned businessman has set up a charity fund for all the elderly and needy people in his home village in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, spurred by a much-publicized Chinese billionaires' banquet sponsored by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett scheduled for Wednesday.
The fund will pay every man and woman aged over 60 a monthly pension of 200 yuan (29 U.S. dollars) in Dongtaidu Village, Tongguan County in Weinan City.
Cheng Jianli, 48, said it was an expression of his gratitude and love for all the people of his parents' generation.
"My mom died five years ago, leaving behind all the 100,000 yuan I gave her," said Cheng, whose private company -- Shaanxi Union Co. Ltd. -- invests heavily in the real estate, tourism and cultural sectors.
Cheng and his sisters used the money to pay for the education of dropouts from impoverished families.
After hearing about the Gates and Buffett's charity banquet which will encourage China's rich to give to society, Cheng spent 10 million yuan to set up a charity fund in September.
His "Fengxian Fund" -- named after his mother, has a startup fund of 10 million yuan which will cover pensions for all the 59 villagers aged over 60 and other charity programs for other needy people.
Cheng said he would inject another 10 million yuan into the fund within three years.
The absolute majority of the residents in the land-locked Shaanxi Province are poor, though a number of enterprising people like Cheng have made a fortune out of its rich land, coal and mineral resources over the past two or three decades.
The local government is encouraging the rich to spend more on charity programs and help the poor.
Gao Naize, a tycoon based in the coal-rich Fugu County, has donated nearly 30 million yuan in recent years to help the needy and build infrastructure in the county.
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