China surpasses the U.S. in the number of billionaires

China has surpassed the U.S. in the number of billionaires for the first time. The number of billionaires in Beijing also surpassed that of New York, reflecting a power shift between the two countries.

The South China Morning Post reported on Thursday that the number of billionaires set a record high of 2,188, adding 88 to last year’s figure, citing the Hurun Report, a research firm that creates a list of China’s wealthy people.

Among them were 568 Chinese billionaires, which was larger than American counterparts (535). Out of 99 new billionaires, 90 of them were Chinese (including those who are from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao). India ranked third with 111, followed by Germany (82) and the U.K. (82).

The richest man in the world was Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, with around 80 billion dollars, followed by Warrant Buffet, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (68 billion dollars).

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The wealthiest man in greater China was Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Wanda Group that has companies in property and films, who was ranked 21th in the world with 26 billion dollars. The second richest man in the region was Li Ka-shing, founder of the Cheung Kong group in Hong Kong (25 billion dollars), followed by Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, (21 billion dollars), and Zong Qinghou, founder of the Wahaha group, which produces bottled water and food (19.1 billion dollars).

The survey found that Beijing had more billionaires (100) than New York (95) for the first time. Then, Moscow had 66 billionaires, Hong Kong 64 and Shanghai 50. Three cities in greater China were in the top five. Top 10 cities included five Chinese cities including Hangzhou and Shenzhen.

The Hong Kong-based newspaper said the survey was based on stock prices on Jan. 15 and the number of Chinese rich men decreased as a result of last year’s stock market slump in China. Had it been based on the stock prices during last summer, the number of billionaires would have been 150 in Beijing alone, it said.

베이징=구자룡특파원 bonhong@donga.com