Billionaire Chen Guangbiao hands out cash in earthquake-stricken Lushan
Chen arrived in the Sichuan province county just hours after the quake struck, with “300,000 yuan (HK$377,000) cash stored in a bag”, mainland media reported earlier this week.
Eccentric billionaire philanthropist Chen Guangbiao managed to steal the headlines again after he arrived at earthquake-stricken Lushan county on Saturday to deliver cash donations - into the hands of quake victims.
Chen came to the Sichuan province county just hours after the earthquake struck, with “300,000 yuan (HK$377,000) cash stored in a bag”, mainland media reported earlier this week.
Each villager reportedly received 200 yuan from the Jiangsu entrepreneur, who also bought along “50 torches, 1,000 quilts, a metric tonne of bread and 20 tonnes of bottled water” for disaster relief, China Daily reported.
Photos circulating on the internet showed Chen dressed in military fatigues passing out 100 yuan bills to smiling villagers. Another one showed him carrying what appeared to be an injured person on his back.
Public reaction was mixed, but mostly positive. On Sina Weibo, Chen supporters rallied around “Brother Chen” and said he showed a different side to China’s wealthy class.
“If only more rich men in China were like Chen Guangbiao, I wonder how social conditions would change,” one user on weibo said.