Travel China and Beyond

China Development — Deng Xiao Ping’s Legacy

Couple of decades ago the then Chinese Leader, Mr. Deng Xiao Ping apparently made the famous statement “It is glorious to be rich…” which opened the floodgates of development in China. Many Chinese enterpreneurs jumped into developing variour business ventures, the results of which are visible in the most recent ranking published by Forbes magazine (Nov. 2006 issue) on the richest people in China.

The list is long, so for this blog entry I decided to list and comment only on the people who are above the $1B net worth:
Rank     Name                     Net Worth ($mil)      Age         Company
1         Wong Kwong Yu             2,300                 37         Gome Appliances
2         Xu Rongmao                  2,100                 56         Shimao Group
3         Larry Rong Zhijian          2,000                 64         CITIC Pacific Group
4         Zhu Mengyi                   1,900                 47         Hopson Development
5         Yan Cheung                   1,500                 49         Nine Dragons
6         Zhang Li                       1,450                 52         R & F Properties Group
7         Shi Zhengrong              1,430                 43         Suntech Power
8         Liu Yongxing                 1,160                 58         East Hope Group
9         Guo Guangchang           1,150                 39         Fosun High-Tech Group
10       Lu Guanqiu                   1,140                 61         Wanxiang Group
11       Liu Yonghao                  1,120                 55         New Hope Group
12       William Ding Lei            1,100                 35         NetEase.com
13       Chu Lam Yiu                 1,090                 37         Huabao International
14       Zhong Sheng Jian          1,080                48         Yanlord Land Group
15       Xu Ming                        1,000                35         Shide Group
Obviously this is a great achievement for the Chinese economy as a whole (as these wealthy people have created enterprises that are creating strong economic activity), but I cannot ignore some of the other aspects that need to be pointed out at the same time wealth is pointed out. The other (very disturbing) aspects that needs to be discussed is the huge and growing disparity between the rich and poor in China. All it takes is a trip to the suburbs of Beijing or to some of the surrounding villages and you can see what I mean by the notion of gap…

That issue is being recognized by the Chinese Gov’t and is now being talked about more and more frequently — the notion of “harmonious society” is what the focus is on,but my assessment is achieving it will require a huge effort and lots of pain.