From the Sydney Morning Herald (link):
IT ISN’T easy to be rich in a communist country.
Chen Tianqiao earned his first $US1 billion ($1.3 billion) at age 30, after his Shanda Interactive Entertainment went public on the US Nasdaq stockmarket and its shares quadrupled within seven months. A year and a half later, $US1 billion of his net worth evaporated after the stock collapsed as competition heated up in online games.
Still, Chen, who says he wants Shanda to be China’s version of Walt Disney, is one of the luckiest of the country’s rich. Other wealthy Chinese have ended up bankrupt, in jail or dead. “Some disappear,” says Chen, who’s worth about $US500 million based on Shanda’s share price this week.
See also “Shanghai tycoon freed from jail” from China Daily (link).
