Cho Tak Wong has spent five decades of his life building up Fuyao Glass, one of the world’s largest glass manufacturers. His success is part of the boom that has turned China into the world’s No. 2 economy and generated a bumper crop of corporate leaders and billionaires that have ranked as some of the globe’s biggest donors.
Cho gained notoriety in the U.S. for a documentary backed by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, “American Factory.” The film follows the China-headquartered company’s purchase of a shuttered former GM plant in Moraine, Ohio and the facility’s return to life afterward. Fuyao has invested $1.5 billion in the U.S. and created about 4,000 direct jobs. Cho, however, has made a big splash at home in a field beyond manufacturing: philanthropy. He in 2021 donated $1.5 billion to create a private university, Fuyao University of Science and Technology, which started accepting students last year.
An overall rise over the years in the number of Chinese billionaires and the age of many among them makes Cho upbeat about the direction of philanthropy in the country. Notably, China’s mid-2020s tech boom is also generating new billionaires likely to make donations that focus on education and science, he predicted in an interview. “Founding a university is something many successful private entrepreneurs would like to do that is very good for society and humanity in either the U.S. or China,” said Cho, adding: “especially after retirement.”
Cho and China are hardly alone with a focus on education among successful businesspeople and countries in Asia. “In China, similarly to the rest of Asia, education has long been and continues to be the top destination for philanthropic capital,” said Ruth Shapiro, co-founder and chief executive of the Hong Kong-based Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society (CAPS), an organization that tracks giving around the region. “This is because of the high regard Chinese feel for education and the belief that through education, people can improve their own lives,” she said by email.
Chinese Hold Education In High Regard
It helps that China’s powerful government in general doesn’t object, she added. “In the most recent five-year plan, philanthropy is specifically mentioned as an important mechanism in achieving China’s goals. Given this, philanthropic giving will continue to grow as long as people are becoming wealthier,” Shapiro said. ‘The government has been encouraging donations to universities, particularly the top tier schools,” she said, part of a larger embrace of “common prosperity.”
“The government is encouraging these donations and because primary education is largely taken care by the State. China sees excellence in higher education as key to continued economic growth,” Shapiro noted.
Cho, 80, got started in business in the 1980s at a struggling local-government-owned factory, Fuqing County Gaoshan Special Shaped Glass Factory. He helped to improve business, and eventually merged the operation into a joint venture that became Fuyao Glass. Hong Kong- and Shanghai-listed Fuyao Glass today has a market capitalization of about $20 billion, more than 40,000 employees worldwide, and a customer list that includes Tesla, GM and Ford. Cho is worth $4.7 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List.
Cho in 2011 donated 300 million shares in Fuyao worth about $500 million at the time to start a new foundation, Heren Charitable Foundation. It has since supported 260 philanthropic projects involving education and supporting economic development. Cho – also known as Cao Dewang — started thinking about larger-scale philanthropy when he hit approximately 70 years of age.
Relatively Young In His 70s
“I was considering my retirement. When I retired, I would hand over the company” to younger leaders, he said. “Yet I was still relatively young. What should I do next? I wondered what else I needed to do.” In home quarantine during the Covid pandemic, “I thought more about these things,” Cho said.
One place Cho looked was to the U.S., home of universities such as Carnegie Mellon founded by successful entrepreneurs. “In the U.S., many private universities were established by first-generation entrepreneurs who, after retiring, returned their funds to society by donating money to set up foundations to run universities. This is a noble virtue, and we should learn from the first generation of U.S. entrepreneurs and also establish private universities.”
Beyond the importance of education, he was also motivated by his own beliefs about the role of wealth in society and China’s national development. “I believe that the real goal of a true entrepreneur is not how much money you make. He or she should take the responsibility of revitalizing the nation and strengthening the country as his own duty. That is to say: How much of a contribution he can make to the country and society? This is a pursuit.”
“Although we have made a lot of money through our own efforts, we must admit that these are social resources, earned by your talent and wisdom. You also have to admit that you have made some money because you are more capable than others. Then, you should have the generosity to share your wealth with society. If you retire and take all that money away, then the nature of it changes, and it is no longer a pursuit of social welfare.”
Once committed to the idea of setting up a university, Cho searched for experts to help. “Since we had also made donations to several universities in China and had good relations with them, we also consulted their various opinions. Later, everyone was very supportive of me, so I decided to go ahead” with technology at the forefront.
“We wanted to establish a science and engineering university. That’s how the name “Technology” came about,” he said. In 2021, his foundation committed the funding to establish the Fuyao University of Science and Technology in Fuzhou, the capital of Cho’s home province of Fujian in southeastern China. About 100 are enrolled so far for the upcoming school year, and the school has sought out scholars and students from around the world; Cho is chairman.
Son Dined At Trump Dinner In Beijing
Cho stepped down as chairman of Fuyao Glass last year to “facilitate the strategic optimization and sustainable development of the company’s governance structure.” He remains honorary chairman for life, and was succeeded by his 56-year-old son, Tso Fai, who was previously vice chairman. Tso attended a dinner with U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing earlier this year.
Eyeing the broader world economy, Cho sees the global business landscape as facing a number of “in-depth adjustments” that aren’t a problem specific to any one country. “From the U.S. to China, to Europe and Japan, all face the issue of adjustment, which is a reality because economic development is not a straight line going up like a rocket; it is wave-shaped. Development surely requires adjustment, and adjustment will also promote development.”
The businessman suggests viewing economic challenges in the same prism as philanthropic giving that supports advancement in education and technology. “The purpose of this adjustment is for better development, and it should be understood in this way. I believe that as entrepreneurs, we should have the courage and responsibility to face this reality,” Cho said.
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