Vanke employees make record donation to public health fund

The founding shareholders’ equity management center of China Vanke Corp signed an agreement with Tsinghua University Education Foundation on Thursday to donate all of its assets toward establishing a special public health fund. The move is the largest-ever single donation by employees of a company in China's history.

The 200 million China Vanke shares, currently valued at around 5.3 billion yuan (US$746 million), will be used to set up the Tsinghua University Vanke Public Health Discipline Development Special Fund.

Vanke and Tsinghua University will work together to build the Vanke School of Public Health at Tsinghua University, which will cover four major fields, namely preventive medicine, “big health,” health-care big data and public health policy and administration.

Margaret Chan, former director-general of the World Health Organization, will be the first dean of the school. Wang Shi, founder and honorary chairman of Vanke, will be the school’s honorary director.

Under the agreement, the special public health fund will be used to support research and innovation, reward scientific findings and develop needed talent, with a long-term aim to improve China’s ability to handle major public health emergencies and contribute to the well-being of mankind.