中国式慈善困局

    去年，沃伦•巴菲特和比尔•盖茨造访北京，他们本以为此行绝对不会引发争议。两人和一群富有而成功的中国商界人士共进私人晚宴，探讨了一个看似安全无害的话题：慈善。中国博客界闻风而动，议论纷纷。彼得•巴菲特承认，“并非所有的评价都是正面的。”。

    这样说还算是客气的。富人向慈善事业捐款这一话题在美国或许不会产生争议，但在中国却不是这么回事。事实上，巴菲特说，每次他到中国表演，与学生和青年才俊对话时，“富二代这个话题总是会冒出来。他们对这个问题乐此不疲。”

    慈善在中国引发公众不满原因有二。其一是在中国，有相当一部分富人认为，散财有违于中国式价值观——中国式价值观将家庭置于首位。因此，有些中国人(误)听说巴菲特和盖茨来中国是为了劝说中国富人们把钱捐给慈善事业，因此感到不舒服。很多中国的年轻人听说巴菲特要把大部分个人财富捐给盖茨基金会(Gates Foundation)时都感到非常震惊。

    中国富裕阶层一向不热衷于慈善捐款，今年尤其如此，这背后的第二个原因就不那么明显了：中国的慈善基金会总是难逃腐败之嫌，有时甚至更糟。中国的慈善钱款管理费往往高达捐款总额的10%，而西方仅为3%左右。今年早些时候，微博认证身份为“中国红十字会（the Red Cross in China）商业总经理”的一位年轻女子发布的照片在网上炸开了锅。为什么？因为照片显示，她开着豪车，挎着爱马仕的手包。

    红十字会坚称照片中的女子事实上并非中国红十字会工作人员。(红十字会含糊其辞，声称这名女子是其为“商业合作伙伴”的女友。)这套说辞并未奏效。2011年中国红十字会收到的捐款额锐减，而且据一些中国媒体报道，整个慈善行业收到的捐款也显著放缓。

    这一事件直指中国慈善行业的信用缺失问题。中国几位著名商界人士和慈善家目前公开表态，坚持要求接受了他们捐款的国内慈善基金会必须提高透明度，降低成本，其中以拥有中国最大的玻璃制造企业之一的曹德旺为首。“这跟西方还是中国的价值观无关，”曹德旺说，“在中国发展慈善是一个信用问题。”

    Last year Warren Buffett and Bill Gates visited Beijing for what they thought would be the least controversial of reasons. They had arranged to have a private dinner with a group of rich, successful Chinese businessmen, and to talk with them about a subject that seems innocuous: philanthropy. The Chinese blogosphere caught wind of the dinner and erupted in chatter. "And not all of it," acknowledges Peter Buffett, "was positive."

    That's putting it mildly. The subject of rich folks giving away their money to charity might be uncontroversial in the U.S., but in China it's not. In fact, Peter says, when he comes to China to perform and speak to groups of students and young professionals, "the subject of second-generation wealth always comes up. They always want to talk about it."

    There are two reasons philanthropy gets people riled up in China. First, a fair number of rich folks there believe giving it away is antithetical to Chinese values -- which stress family above all. It's why some Chinese were upset when they heard (mistakenly) that Buffett and Gates were coming to tell rich Chinese how to give away their wealth. Many young Chinese were stunned when Buffett said he was giving most of his wealth to the Gates Foundation.

    But the second reason wealthy Chinese haven't been racing to donate more of their money, particularly this year, is less obvious: Charitable foundations in China are dogged by the whiff -- and sometimes more than that -- of corruption. Management fees for charities in China are often up to 10% of donations collected, compared with around 3% in the West. Earlier this year, the mere photograph on the web of a young woman identified as a manager of the Red Cross in China sent the blogosphere into a frenzy. The reason? The photo showed her driving a fancy car and carrying a Hermès purse.

    The agency insisted that the woman in question did not, in fact, work for the Red Cross in China. (She was the girlfriend of what the agency murkily called a "business partner.") The denials didn't matter. Donations to RCIC in the first half of 2011 plummeted and, according to some Chinese press reports, slowed considerably to the charitable sector as a whole.

    That pointed to the lack of trust that exists in the charitable sector in China. Several prominent Chinese businessmen and philanthropists -- led by Cao Dewang, owner of one of the largest glassmaking companies in China -- have now publicly insisted that the domestic charities they donate to have to become more transparent and costeffective. "This doesn't have anything to do with values, Western or Chinese," Cao has said. "To increase charity now in China is a matter of trust."