What are the recent activities of China Railway Trust?

At present, the main force involved in my country’s philanthropic undertakings is still foundations and charitable organizations. According to the relevant provisions of the Charity Law, no matter what the charitable purpose of a charitable trust is, in theory, a corresponding foundation can be found in reality. But for my country's philanthropy, the special significance of charitable trusts makes it expected to become a new model for future charity projects. From 2016 to the end of November 2020, 491 charitable trusts have been established across the country, and most of them have trust companies serving as trustees of charitable trusts.

First, charitable trust is a basic system of charitable services that has been tested in long-term practice. As an imported product, standardized charitable trusts have been continuously improved through hundreds of years of practice abroad. At present, the core principles of various main systems in the international charity community are trust systems or trust principles. Its basic structure is that the property owner contributes capital and leaves it to a trusted trustee for management and use. Property ownership and beneficiary rights are separated, and property interests are handed over to the beneficiaries in accordance with the principle of social public interest.

Second, the institutional characteristics of charitable trusts are in line with the development laws of public welfare and charitable activities. Charitable trusts have distinctive institutional characteristics, which mainly include: ① The interests of the public are the first principle; ② Highly respect the trustor’s freedom of charitable will, requiring trustees to be flexible and strictly comply with the purpose of the trust; ③ Based on charitable culture and values As the core, spread noble moral sentiments when transferring property; ④ The trustee is fully authorized and generally constrained and assumes trust obligations; ⑤ With the protection of trust property as the core, a set of norms for the independence of trust property, continuity of trust, and limited fiduciary liability are formed ;⑥ It has three charity privileges: tax incentives, public power supervision, and special system relief***. Among them, the institutional characteristics of the trustor's freedom of will can fully mobilize the enthusiasm of trust companies to participate in charity, accurately allocate charity resources, optimize the management and use of charity properties, diversify the spread of charity culture, and have a fundamental impact on the widespread use of the charitable trust system.

Third, the structure of charitable trusts fits our country’s social background. In the long-term charitable trust activities, charitable trusts have formed a basic social existence structure. Its main characteristics are: a small number of large charitable trusts, but the amount of trust property managed is large, the establishment structure is complex, they are concentrated in big cities, and the scope of charitable services is wide. , trustee management requirements are high; there are many small and medium-sized charitable trusts, but the average amount of trust property managed is small, the establishment structure is relatively simple, most are widely distributed in urban and rural areas, the scope of charitable services is focused, and trustee management requirements are not high. Compared with legal entities, foundations, etc. that require a certain amount of initial capital to establish, charitable trusts have low thresholds for establishment, simple procedures, and compliant management. Therefore, small and medium-sized charitable trusts that facilitate the participation of the general public can widely exist.