The Hurun Rich List on September 14 revealed that at least 74 individuals had joined the group with fortunes of at least US$300 million in this year’s list, adding to the 2,056 who made last year’s list, and bringing their combined assets to US$2.6 trillion, roughly the same size as the GDP of the UK, the world’s fifth largest economy. Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher, said “Overall, the Hurun Rich List has grown faster than any year since 2007, with the possible exception of 2015.” Xu Jiayin, chairman of real estate developer Evergrande Group, has emerged as China’s richest man with assets worth US$43 billion. Last year’s leader, Wang Jianlin, dropped to fifth after declines in the share price of his embattled Wanda Group saw his family’s net worth slump 28 per cent to US$23 billion. Pony Ma Huateng, founder and chief executive of Tencent took the No 2 spot on the rich list with a net worth of US$37 billion, overtaking Alibaba chief executive Jack Ma at US$30 billion, who ranked third. Fourth on the list, and also China’s richest woman, Yang Huiyan, vice-chairman and the largest shareholder of real estate developer Country Garden, saw her wealth triple to US$24 billion. Technology names continued to dominate the wealth rankings with Baidu’s Robin Li, and NetEase’s Ding Lei both making the top 10.  Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report Chairman, said “China’s entrepreneurs have come a long way. Back in 1999, when I put out the first list, I managed to rank 50 people. Today we have almost that number just from Alibaba.”Of the 2,130 individuals with assets above US$300 million, 43 came from Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Financial.

(Comment: Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent are so dependent on the Chinese market and its regulations that they cannot conceivably be profitable without strong cooperation with the state. The state has successfully outsourced the cost of internet surveillance to these companies. Innovation also seems closely connected with the state’s needs (artificial intelligence is rumored to have developed so quickly because the state has provided companies with the personal data it controls). The Sesame Credit system developed by Alibaba has provided an effective template for China's Social Credit Management scheme.)