Chinese billionaire Wang Wenliang is breaking the mold, amidst skepticism, of course, regarding the intentions of Chinese donations, especially the ones he gives to institutions in America. It could be the start of a new trend to see more philanthropy like his, what we often see from American moguls, coming from the wealthy in China. In one of his environmental causes, he’s actually helping Alaska’s migratory waterfowl.
Outside the city of Dandong, in China’s far northeast, just across the border from North Korea, exists one of China’s largest wetlands. Two hundred and fifty thousand acres are home to dozens of species, most notably a group of migratory birds called godwits that journey from New Zealand to Alaska every year, stopping in the wetlands for a two-week break each spring before resuming their flight for Alaskan summertime.
A special area of fifty thousand acres where the birds migrate isn’t open to tourists, doesn’t advertise, and until recently wasn’t known to many nature conservancy groups operating in China—all traits of the man who protects it: billionaire Wang Wenliang.
Wang was a little-known Chinese entrepreneur, running a private construction company until this spring, when his $2 million donation to the Clinton Foundation created headlines in the U.S. Media reports noted his relationship with the Chinese government. Wang’s construction firm built the new Chinese embassy in Washington D.C. and, according to his official biography, Wang once worked within China’s government, serving as an economic advisor to the municipal government in his home province of Liaoning before leaving to start the construction company in 1998. He later came to control the port in his hometown of Dandong (although a company controlled by the local government still owns 20%). Wang is now worth $2 billion, according to the Hurun Report.
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