Liang Wengen, chairman of construction company Sany topped this year’s list with a fortune worth about $11 billion. He is now one of 271 US dollar billionaires on the list – up from 130 in 2009 – meaning China is now second only to the United States by this measure.
‘Given the rapid increase in China’s economic growth, it’s unsurprising that the numbers of wealthy people should increase rapidly as well,’ says Prof. June Teufel Dreyer, a China specialist at the University of Miami. ‘And since the property market has been so active – many would say overheated – the disproportionate number of the very wealthiest who made their billions in property is also unsurprising.’
Robert Kapp, president of Kapp Associates, agrees. ‘Real estate is to China what “finance” became for the United States in the run-up to 2008,’ he says. ‘It’s interesting to see that most of these hyper-wealthy individuals appear to have amassed their wealth beyond the direct domination of the state. Though, of course, nothing is more government-dependent than real estate development.’
Why has the real estate sector spawned so many ultra-rich? Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College says one factor is the nature of ‘crony capitalism’ in China. ‘To make money in real estate requires two things: access to cheap land and access to cheap money. Both require guanxi (personal networks).’
According to this year’s list, four of the top 10 made their fortunes in property, while a fifth made his in property and investments. The youngest on the list is Ohio State University graduate Yang Huiyan majority shareholder of Country Garden Holdings, who is aged just 30.
This rapid accumulation of wealth is likely to be viewed with envy, says Teufel Dreyer, ‘although resentment seems to accrue to the class of super-wealthy in the abstract rather than being attached to individuals.’
0 comments:
Post a Comment