Foreign donors are refusing to say why they sent millions of dollars in 2014 to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

The importance of who gave to the foundation and why was highlighted this week when CBS News revealed that one donor in 2013 was Rilin Enterprises. Rilin is headed by Wang Wienlang, a Chinese businessman who was invited to join the National Peoples' Congress as a delegate in the same year as he made the donation.

Rilin is close to China's national security and intelligence agencies. Besides the $2 million given to the Clintons' foundation, Rilin also spent at least another $1.4 million in 2012 lobbying Congress and the U.S. State Department, of which Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.

Wang has spent many millions cultivating influence in the U.S., according to Epoch Times, a news outlet founded in 2003 by Chinese dissidents.

"He has funded or helped establish numerous organizations in the United States — from think tanks to scholarly institutes — designed to influence U.S.-China relations, U.S. foreign policy and U.S. security policy," Epoch Times reported Wednesday.

University of South Carolina officials recently awarded Wang an honorary degree, and Epoch Times described him as "a major benefactor engaged in U.S.-China relations, Southeast Asia relations and relations on the Korean Peninsula."

Wang is also a major funder of New York University's Center on U.S.-China Relations, the Hodges Scholars Program of the University of South Carolina's Moore School of Business and several programs at the National University of Singapore.

The Examiner asked foreign donors: Why did you contribute to the Clinton Foundation when innumerable other charitable groups, non-governmental organizations and official bodies do the same or similar work but without becoming centers of political controversy?

The Examiner also asked if the donors had taken any steps, beyond accepting information from the foundation, to verify that their contributions were being spent as intended and achieving the desired results.

Typical of those refusing to discuss their contributions was Don H. Jawardena, of Sri Lanka, who described the issue as "of a private and personal nature." He said he chose not to respond "as you are a third party fishing for information for reasons best known to you. I cannot be a party to contribute for your thirst for information of a private and a personal matter of mine to achieve your purpose, which I do not know."

Jawardena, who gave $100,00-250,000 to the foundation, is founding chairman of the Stassen Group of Companies, an export-import business.

Similarly, a spokesman for Poju Zabludowicz, chief executive of the London-based Tamares Group, an investment firm, said: "Thank you for your email regarding the Clinton Foundation. We do not comment on donations." Zabludowicz also gave $100,000-250,000.

A spokesman for the Wyss Foundation, which gave $5 million, declined to comment and instead pointed to a Dec. 13, 2013, press release about its donation. The Wyss Foundation was established by Hansjorg Wyss, a reclusive Swiss billionaire whose former company conducted illegal drug trials in the U.S. in which three people died.

Other donors promised responses but did not supply them. These included a spokesman for Dogan Sirketler Grubu Holding A.S., an industrial conglomerate based in Turkey, and Sekunjalo Investments Limited, a private equity firm based in South Africa.

At least one donor seemed unsure if it had indeed made a donation. The People's Postcode Trust, a charity based in Edinburgh, Scotland, denied it was a donor, but its web site lists a £500,000 contribution. A spokesman subsequently qualified the response to say players of the lottery operated by the trust made the contribution.

A few donors were willing to discuss their contributions at length. A spokesman for the Dutch Postcode Lottery, which donated more than $25 million, said "the Postcode Lottery supports the Clinton Foundation because of its work in many fields the lottery raises money for, such as access to medicine, climate change, poverty alleviation, food security and sustainable agriculture. In addition, the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative offer a unique network for all our beneficiaries to highlight and connect their work and bring it to a next level."

Another donor willing to discuss its contribution was the Norwegian Climate Foundation, which responded with a statement saying "our purpose is to make new contacts (or allies) that could be useful in our work against global warming. Therefore, we have for some years now participated in the annual meeting in New York."

But the statement added a warning that "we have also wanted to influence the agenda of the Clinton Global Initiative events to make them get more actively involved in climate change issues. That is why we are not sure if we want to continue being a member next year. The board will make that decision in June."

With research by Alicia Hesse, an Examiner intern from the National Journalism Center.