Employees walk past the lobby of Alibaba headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. (Photo : Reuters)

The top three tech giants of China, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, made historic contributions to Chinese society recently.



The Chief Executive Officer of Baidu, Robin Li, donated 30 million yuan to the Peking Union Medical College last year to support esophagus cancer research. He is a member of the management council of the Aiyu Huaxia Charity Foundation.




In 2011, Li and Microsoft's Bill Gates collaborated for a campaign against smoking. The campaign focused on the harmful effects of second hand smoking. The collaboration aimed to spread awareness to influence people to stop smoking and the ill effects to the people around smokers.



The amount that was donated by both Gates and Li remain undisclosed.



Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group Holdings, Ltd is another major donor to important causes. He pledged $3 billion in share options to various charitable trusts. He also committed 0.3 percent of Alibaba's earnings for environmental awareness.



As of end of the 2016 fiscal year, the Alibaba Foundation donated $31.4 million to various causes.



According to the 2015 Hurun Report, Jack Ma was named China's biggest philatrophist.



The CEO of Tencent Holdings, Pony Ma, founded the Tencent Foundation in 2007. The Tencent Foundation is the first foundation founded by an internet company. In April, Ma announced that he will give 100 million shares, valued at $2 million, to a charity fund.



Ma will allocate these shares to support those in need in medicine, rehabilitation of the environment and to support education.



In a statement, Ma said, "After 10 years of exploration and participation in philanthropic activities, I increasingly feel that there is a need for a longer term, efficient and organized way to give back to society."

