Chinese make huge gains on Forbes list

• Source: Global Times
• [02:05 March 12 2010]
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Chinese entrepreneur Zong Qinghou, CEO of eastern Hangzhou's Wahaha Group, is the wealthiest person on the Chinese mainland. The tycoon, with his $7 billion beverage empire, ranks 103rd on the list.

Animal feed tycoon Liu Yongxing of Hope Group and home appliances tycoon Zhang Jindong of the Sunning Group are listed as the second- and third-richest men in China, ranking 154th and 176th on the list.

Topping last year's list was Wang Chuanfu, president of Shenzhen-based BYD Automobile, with $5.8 billion, followed by Liu at $5.5 billion and Zong at $4.8 billion.

There are 25 tycoons from Hong Kong on the list, with many of the region's wealthiest people boosting their fortunes from investments on the Chinese mainland.

Li Ka-shing, the 81-year-old head of conglomerate Cheung Kong Holdings, was once again the richest person in Hong Kong with $21 billion, ranking 14th on the global list.

Flannery attributed the increase of Chinese billionaires on the list to the nation's well-performing economy over the past year and the maturing of its financial market.

"The Chinese government achieved the 8 percent goal of GDP growth as expected for the year 2009; Robust economy has won more confidence of investors from both home and abroad," he explained.

However, Ding Yifan, deputy director of the Institute of World Development, told the Global Times that it is a hint that China's economic development pattern is still lagging behind, as the richest in China are limited to the beverage and animal feed industry, a sharp contrast with the world's wealthiest who are from telecom and IT sectors.

"China's richest rank lower than those of India because we only assess China's private companies instead of its State-owned companies, which are even wealthier than those on the list," Zhou Jiangong, chief editor of the Forbes Chinese version, told the Global Times, admitting that the list is far from a compete picture of the wealthiest people around the world.

But while more Chinese tycoons storm the Forbes rich list, an increasingly widening gap between the rich and poor is gripping China, prompting its leadership to express concern about the issue, saying that if it isn't addressed, social instability could ensue.

Guo Qiang contributed to this story