From The USA Today:
Forget Chairman Mao’s workers’ paradise. Communist China is taking a great leap toward huge private fortunes.
Forbes’ annual list of the richest Chinese out today includes a record 15 billionaires, up from 10 last year and just three in 2004.
That’s chump change in the USA, where all 400 on Forbes’ list of richest Americans are billionaires. Still, a country that once persecuted disciples of free enterprise is now barreling down the capitalist road.
China’s new billionaires have profited from enterprises ranging from selling TVs to recycling paper to building condos. “Chinese are born with entrepreneurialism in their genes,” says Russell Flannery, who compiled Forbes’ list.
See also: I’m not corrupt: China’s $3bn kid by Rowan Callick on Australian.