China home to more billionaires than the US

There are now 596 United States dollar billionaires in mainland China, Hurun said in a report released on Thursday, That number jumps to 715 if Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau are included and compares to 537 American billionaires, based on Hurun’s calculations.

“The world used to look to American entrepreneurs… for inspiration”.

“Despite the slowdown in the economy, China’s richest have defied gravity, recording their best year ever, and creating more wealth than any country has ever done before in a year”, said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of Hurun Report.

Observers were quick to point out that the trend also represents the privatisation of the Chinese economy, now hovering around 7 per cent, as a result of more market-oriented reforms.

Yan Hao of road builder China Pacific Construction was sixth while the founder of search engine giant Baidu, Robin Li, dropped to seventh amid worries over his company’s huge spending to expand its business. Global Monetary Fund had forecasted that the economy would decline to 6.8 per cent this year from last year’s 7.3 per cent and further to 6.3 per cent in 2016.

Agencies said communist leaders are trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy to more self-sustaining growth driven by domestic consumption and service businesses to reduce reliance on trade, investment and heavy industry. He was one of the first private Chinese investors to bet on the Indian market.

The Hurun Rich List tracks anybody in China with at least 2 billion Chinese renminbi ($315 million) and 2015 saw the largest yearly increase to date, with the number of people on the listing rising from 680 to 1,877. Beverage king Zong Qinghou of Hangzhou Wahaha Group was ranked third with net worth of $21.1 billion.

The richest man in China as of August was Wang Jianlin, chairman of conglomerate Dalian Wanda, who snatched the top spot back from Jack Massachusetts of Alibaba.

Lei Jun of smartphone maker Xiaomi, which is seeking to challenge Apple, jumped five places to fifth by doubling his wealth to more $14 billion.