Former premier Zhu Rongji was listed as one of the top 100 donors in China for donating 20 million yuan ($3.3 million) of his book's royalty income to a fellowship foundation, according to the 2013 Chinese Top 100 Donors list issued by the China Philanthropy Research Institute on Thursday.

Zhu ranked No 70, and it is the first time that a Chinese political leader appeared on the list. The list has been released for three consecutive years.

The highest donation recorded exceeded 8.5 billion yuan and the lowest was 11.20 million yuan. In total, the top 100 donors contributed 14.7 billion yuan.

The top three donors are Hainan Airlines Group (8.51 billion yuan), Dang Yanbao, the president of Baofeng Energy, (about 1.15 billion yuan) and Wang Jianlin, the chairman of Dalian Wanda Group (about 0.43 billion yuan).

According to the list, about 63 percent of the contributions are non-directional donations and don't specify the application of the donation.

More than 40 percent of donors are from the real estate industry, which has the highest donation participation among different industries.

There are 35 donors from Guangdong province, which ranked first, followed by Jiangsu province and Beijing.

Donations have increased since 2012. For example, the number of donors donating more than 20 million yuan reached 84 in 2013, compared to 68 in 2012.

"The Ya'an earthquake, which happened on April 20, 2013, in Sichuan province, became the main donation event. There are 37 donors in the list participating in the earthquake donation and the total amount has reached 440 million yuan," said Zhang Gaorong, the director of research department at China Philanthropy Research Institute

Zhang said apart from Zhu Rongji, he hoped more retired political leaders could appear on the list in the future.

Furthermore, Chinese philanthropists began to donate overseas in 2013. Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, donated $20 million to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the US to fund construction of a film museum.