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[Opinion] Wealthy Man from China

Posted September. 24, 2002 23:03,   

Even in countries that value humbleness and modesty, people are now using such expression as “Hope you will get rich” when they intend to wish well others. In China, in fact, “Gungshi Pai (meaning “make a lot of money”)” has long been used for wishing well during the lunar New Year holidays. This reflects Chinese interest in amassing wealth. Given their pragmatism that seeks substance rather than looks, it’s no surprise that China has been a home of many of world’s wealthiest men. Ethnic Chinese living overseas, once estimated to have some $2 trillion in floating assets in the mid 1990s, are still wielding a great influence on the global economy.

▷As its economy continues to grow rapidly, China now sees an emergence of a new rich class. The latest issue of the Times wrote about the new rich class in China as a cover story. It introduced a man living in Hangzhou who spent $10 million building a house after the White House. As recently as 1999, a man or a woman with some $6 million ranked in the top 50 wealthiest people in the country. On the 50th spot last year, however, was a man who has $110 million, which reflects the rising scale of individual wealth in China. It’s rather ironic that capitalism is driving economic growth of a country adopting socialist ideas. Capitalism, after all, aims to provoke human desire of wealth and success to motivate people to participate in economic activities.

▷In an unexpected move, North Korea appointed a Dutch national Chinese businessman as a new magistrate of the Special District of Shinuiju. Yang Bin, chairman of Eouya Group, is known as the second wealthiest man in China who has a fortune of 7.5 billion wuan, or 1.2 trillion won. It came as surprise that the communist North named the self-made foreign businessman as head of the special economic zone, which will likely decide the future of the country. What’s more surprising is that Yang took the daunting task with little hesitation. In a press interview in Pyongyang, he outlined an ambitious plan to develop Shinuiju into a Hong Kong in Korean Peninsula.

▷Yang is a new rich who has blood of Chinese merchants, and Shinuiju is a city of commerce well known for Uiju merchants that writer Choi In-ho modeled after for his epic “Passage for Merchants.” And we wonder how the combination between the two will change the traditional commercial center. Whether Shinuiju Special Economic Zone will become a North Asian hub of finance, manufacturing, trading and tourism as Jang asserts, or end up being yet another Najin-Seongbong, it remains to be seen.

Song Moon-hong, Editorial Writer songmh@donga.com