BEIJING, Oct. 13 -- The wealth of China's 100 richest people grew 40 per cent during the past year, with property and manufacturing the most profitable sectors.

    These are the findings of the China Rich List due to be published today by Rupert Hoogewerf, who has produced such a ranking for the seven years.

    This time, however, the number of wealthy was expanded to 400 from 100 in previous years and their total wealth amounted to US$75 billion, equal to 7 per cent of China's gross domestic product last year.

    One in five are believed to be members of the Communist Party, including eight National People's Congress delegates, and 11 China People's Political Consultative Congress members.

    Such lists are also published by Forbes as well as Chinese magazines.

    Some question their accuracy, especially for those entrepreneurs whose companies are not listed, meaning the accounts are not published. Many prefer to hide their wealth from the envy of government officials, tax collectors and the angry unemployed.

    "Valuing the wealth of China's rich is as much an art as it is a science," Mr Hoogewerf said. "For non-listed companies, we derived a value by comparing them with their listed equivalents, using industry [price-earnings] ratios."

    To make the top 100 this year required a fortune of US$210 million, a rise of 40 per cent from the US$150 million entry level last year and compared with just US$6 million when the list first appeared in 1999.

    Seven of the top 10 were US dollar billionaires, up from three last year.

    Top of the list, for the second year, was Wong Kwong-yu, 36, the founder of Gome Group, China's largest electronics retailer, whose personal wealth grew from US$1.3 billion last year to US$1.7 billion, mainly through a sale of stock from his Hong Kong-listed company which earned him US$320 million.

    Second came Yan Jiehe, 45, the chief executive of China Pacific Construction Group, with a fortune of US$1.5 billion, up from US$180 million last year.

    His firm is the leading private builder of roads, reservoirs, bridges and other infrastructural projects, employing 100,000 people, the largest of any private firm in the country, and paying US$170 million in taxes last year on sales of US$2.7 billion.

    Third was Chen Tianqiao, 32, the chief executive of Shanda Networking Development, the online games and internet portal, with US$1.45 billion, up from US$1.05 billion.

    Just 21 of the 400 on the list were women and only 9 per cent said they could speak passable English.

    The sole departure from last year's list was Gu Chujun, the former chairman of Guangdong Kelon Electrical Holdings who was arrested in July for violating the Securities Law. Enditem

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com/scmp.com)