The total number of billionaires in China has risen to second
place in the world, just behind the US, Yangcheng Evening
News reported on Sunday.
The 2007 top 500 Chinese magnates list was recently released in
Hong Kong, the combined wealth of the 500 magnates exceeds 4,342.6
billion yuan (US$US587 billion). The number of Chinese magnates
with more than one billion dollars in assets has reached 146,
compared to 85 last year.
The list, made by World Entrepreneur magazine, covered magnates
in the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. The Kwok
brothers of Sun Hung Kai Properties in Hong Kong took top place on
the list. Yang Huiyan of Country Garden and the family behind Nine
Dragons Paper (Holdings) Limited were the top two magnates from the
mainland.
According to statistics, there are more than 18,000 people in
China with more than a hundred million yuan in wealth, 440,000 with
10 million, and the nation's number of millionaires now accounts
for 3.3 percent of the total population.
The stupendous increase in Chinese magnates is been attributed
to high-speed increases in the stock and property markets. Among
the 500 magnates on the list, 128 are from the real estate
industry.
(CRI December 31, 2007)