Former premier makes philanthropy list  

朱镕基捐著书所得版税2398万登胡润慈善榜

The Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute revealed this year's Hurun Philanthropy List Tuesday with China's former premier Zhu Rongji on the list, with donations of 23.98 million yuan ($3.9 million).

During the past year, Zhu has donated copyright royalties of 23.98 million yuan earned from his two published books featuring his speeches, and the proceeds went to an education foundation established in January 2013 after being approved by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said the Hurun Report.

It was not the first time that Zhu has appeared on the philanthropy list. Zhu also was included in the donation list released by the China Philanthropy Research Institute in January for donating 20 million yuan to establish the foundation in 2013.

Zhu ranked 60th in the philanthropy list while Jack Ma Yun, 50, the founder and chairman of Alibaba Group, China's largest e-commerce provider in terms of sales revenue, topped the list with donations of 14.5 billion yuan.

He set a new record and named "China's Most Generous Philanthropist."

Ma also topped in a China Rich List 2014, which was released by Forbes China magazine the same day with personal wealth of $19.5 billion.

This is the first time that China's richest man is also China's most generous philanthropist, said Hurun.

The figures indicate that 2014 marks a new high for philanthropy. The average donations of the top 100 philanthropists increased by 264 percent year-on-year. The lowest amount of donations from one individual on this year's list was 12 million, which was 1 million yuan higher than last year.

The report shows that most philanthropists donated their money to educational endeavors, which accounted for 27 percent of the total and donations to social services ranked second with a proportion of 20 percent.

About 19 percent of the donations went to disaster relief while 11 percent went to helping the poor.

A total of 22 percent of the listed philanthropists are involved in politics in a formal capacity.