Tencent responds to call for equality with $7.7 billion for ‘common prosperity’

Tech giant Tencent Holdings announced that it has created a RMB 50 billion ($7.7 billion) fund earmarked for “common prosperity”, reports the South China Morning Post. The announcement comes less than a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping made “common prosperity” a key social and economic goal for the country.

According to the SCMP, Tencent said in a statement that the fund will be used to boost the income of low-income groups, improve health care coverage, help rural economic development, and support grass roots education.

“As a Chinese tech company blessed by China’s reform and opening up, Tencent has always been thinking how to help social development with its own technologies and digital power,” the company said.