Candles at a memorial site composing the characters of number 812 mark the day of Aug. 12 when a deadly explosion rocked Tianjin. (Photo : CFP)
As the death toll of the Tianjin blast is steadily climbing, social media has found an unlikely target for public pressure in China's second richest man and the founder of Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Jack Ma Yun, who has yet to make a donation to the victims of the disaster.
After several celebrities pledged to donate to the victims, netizens flooded Ma's Weibo page with at least 39,000 comments, calling on him to donate as well.
"If you don't donate, I will stop shopping on Taobao," wrote one commenter.
"As the one of the wealthiest men in China, you should donate 100 million yuan ($15.6 million)," wrote another commenter.
"You threw away more than 1 billion yuan to buy a villa in Hong Kong, why not spend a few hundred million yuan for Tianjin victims," wrote another commenter, referring to Ma's reported purchase of the second most expensive home in the world.
While the majority of comments have been critical of Ma, a sizable minority have pointed out that it is up to Ma whether he donates money or not.
As of now, numerous other Chinese business leaders and celebrities have already pledged to donate to support rescue efforts, including Hong Kong film star Jackie Chan, who pledged to donate 3 million yuan ($468,000) the day after the explosion, and founder and chief executive of JD.com Richard Liu Qiangdong, who donated 10 million yuan on Sunday.
Aside from Ma, other Chinese Internet and tech leaders, like Pony Ma Huateng of Tencent and Lei Jun of Xiaomi, have also been criticized for not announcing any donations, but not to the extent of Ma.
Ma has an estimated fortune worth $31.5 billion and is one of the country's top philanthropists, having donated more than 14.6 billion yuan in 2014.
Ma has donated to previous disasters, like the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, wherein he donated 25 million yuan ($3.9 million). His foundation also donated 5 million yuan in 2011 after another disaster hit the province.
Ma has yet to respond to his online critics.
There have been other controversies regarding donations following the Tianjin explosion. On Sunday, a 19-year-old girl allegedly obtained tens of thousands of yuan by falsely claiming her father had been killed in the blast.
