Although Justin Bieber was banned from performing in China back in 2017 for “bad behavior,” the ‘Yummy’ singer recently donated RMB200,000 to the Beijing Chunmiao Charity Foundation in support of Wuhan relief efforts. Yesterday evening, the charity’s official Weibo account posted Bieber’s donation certificate which denotes him as a “爱心人士” which translates to a ‘caring person.’ Bieber also posted a video on Instagram, captioned “Watching the news I couldn’t imagine how scary it would be if a new disease was effecting (sic) my wife and my family and friends. China we stand with you as a collective humanity and have made a donation to support. Whether it be this or the fires of Australia we all need to be there for eachother (sic). Shout out to my friend @kriswu for the conversation.”
Chinese netizens applauded the star, one rationalizing “He is not born in China and he has not come to China for a long time to make money. He does not have the obligation to donate to China…it is rare for a superstar like him to speak for China.”
Katy Perry, also known as ‘Fruit Sister’ in China sent her thoughts and prayers to Wuhan via a Weibo video message on February 4. As of press time, the video has been viewed over 10 million times and has even been retweeted by Chinese officials.
Prominent Chinese business leaders such as Jack Ma of Alibaba and CEO of Xiaomi, Lei Jun have also donated millions of yuan. Jack Ma through his foundation donated RMB100 million to vaccine research and virus treatment measures, while Lei Jun spent RMB12.7 million on relief efforts for his home province of Hubei.
[Cover image via @justinbieber/Instagram]