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Shenzhen's housing grant for billionaires evokes protest

SHENZHEN'S social welfare authority said this week that the city's housing subsidy for elite professionals was aimed at retaining its talent in response to online outcry over its fairness.

"The grant is part of the city's incentives to attract and retain skilled people. It has nothing to do with the city's social welfare fund," an unnamed official with Shenzhen's Human Resources and Social Security Bureau was quoted by a report in online People's Daily today.

Among the 684 people eligible for housing subsidy is Ma Huateng, chief executive officer of Tencent Inc and one of China's most controversial high-earners.

Tencent responded with a statement that Ma had always donated his housing subsidy and other cash awards to charity, pointing out that Ma's housing grant was for high-end professionals, not "subsidy for affordable housing" as interpreted by some media reports.

Shenzhen's practice of giving housing grant to 684 elite professionals, many of them billionaires and corporate tycoons, has sparked heated online debate over its fairness.



 

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