The number of dollar millionaires in China has been booming over the past decade, together with its economic development. Hurun founder Rupert Hoogewerf has been tracking that wealth, he tells the China Daily, and the millionaires have become more cooperative over the years, he discovered.
The China Daily:
Hoogewerf, the founder of the Hurun Report, which publishes he well-known annual listing of the richest 1,000 people in China, said that China’s richest are reluctant to be identified as a “new money class” when put under the spotlight by his rich list,and are now seeking cooperation and providing him more data to prove otherwise.
For instance, Duan Yongping, a 52-year-old executive in the electronic appliances industry, once showed his stock trading account to Hoogewerf and his team for assessment.
“They wouldn’t be happy to do this before,” Hoogewerf, a former chartered accountant at Arthur Andersen, told China Daily,adding that China is a complicated market with many different regulations and rules, some of which are not very clear.
“So if someone knows you got a lot of money they are more likely to ask you for extra tax or payments,” he said.
During the past decade, China has created more wealth overall than any other country in the world. The number of its dollar billionaires has grown from 15 to around 250 in just six years. Aslate as 2004, a total of $150 million was enough to make the top 100.
For most on the rich list, Hoogewerf, an old Etonian with a degree in Chinese, said it is difficult to discover all the sources of their wealth. So the real extent of their wealth is likely more than shown on the list.
Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.
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