Jet Li Fights for Chinese Charity

"As I see communities improve through charitable work, I envision even more positive change in China in the next 10 years," wrote Jet Li on Forbes.com about his goal of promoting charity work in China. "China's growing wealth and people's increased access to education and knowledge will create an ever-growing capacity for giving," he continued.

Li is working with the One Foundation to help make this happen. The organization, founded in 2007, already has over a million pledged volunteers and hopes to promote a new model of "social entrepreneurship."

"This is the vision I have for the One Foundation, which I founded in 2007," Li also wrote. "Since then, we have contributed to the relief of 12 national and international disasters, including last year’s Sichuan earthquake."

Li has also used his star power to attract donations, both from citizens and from companies like Deloitte, McKinsey, Alibaba, China Merchants Bank and Tencent. I mean, would you want to say "no" to this guy? Last year, he helped the Foundation direct $1 million to seven Chinese nonprofit organizations, and this year they plan to contribute $1.5 million to 10 organizations.

The actor also wrote about the steady increase in charitable giving over the years, noting that the country reached an important milestone in 2004 when private foundations could officially register in China.

"Now there are around 1,500 private foundations doing needed work across the country," he wrote proudly.

If there was anyone in China who thought charitable work was for wimps, now they can answer to Jet Li. The One Foundation definitely has one hell of a fighter on its side.

Photo by Gavatron courtesy of Wikipedia.