Looking at the evolution of China's wealth pattern from the rich list

Looking at the evolution of China's wealth pattern from the rich list The annual rich list always attracts the attention of many people. The comings and goings of people on the list have witnessed the rise and fall of China's economy...

The annual rich list always attracts the attention of many people. The comings and goings of people on the list have witnessed the ups and downs of China's economy. On the 2012 list of China's richest people, some are still at the forefront, while others have quietly fallen; there are those who are struggling, and there are also those who are ready to make progress. Behind the rise and fall of the wealth of the rich, we have witnessed the evolution of China's wealth pattern from one aspect.

The "bears" in the stock market dominate the world, and the wealth of the rich has shrunk

In the Forbes "World's Richest List" released in March 2012, the Chinese rich who were in the limelight last year are no longer in glory, and the number of Chinese rich on the list has dropped from 115 last year to 95. At the same time, a total of 117 rich people fell off the global rich list this year, 40 of whom are from China, accounting for more than one-third. This is "the first time in recent years that Chinese rich people have become losers on the list."

The Forbes Global Rich List is a list of rich people with a personal or family net worth of more than US$1 billion. Although the number of rich people in China has declined this year, the total number of rich people on the list is rising. A total of 1,011 people were on the list in 2010, and the number reached 1,210 in 2011, a growth rate of nearly 10%. Despite the poor global economy in 2012, the number of wealthy people still increased to 1,226. The number of rich people in the two groups decreased and increased, highlighting the loss of China's rich.

The two "China Rich Lists" released in the second half of the year show that the shrinkage of China's rich continues. For the top 100 Chinese billionaires on this year's Forbes list, their total assets shrank by 7% from last year, to US$220 billion. On the "Hurun Rich List", which has a larger statistical volume, the average wealth of China's richest people on the list in 2012 fell by 8.5% from last year to 5.4 billion yuan. Moreover, 469 rich people have seen their wealth shrink this year, and 37 people have seen their wealth plummet by more than 50%.

As the stock market in mainland China has fallen sharply in the past two years and has not yet recovered significantly, the wealth of China's richest people on the list has shrunk. However, the "resilience" of the rich is significantly higher than that of the market. When Forbes released the "China Rich List" in 2012, the Shanghai Composite Index fell by about 20% compared with the previous year when the list was released. Compared with this number, whether it is a 7% or 8.5% decline, it is considered a good result.

The popularity of real estate is fading, and new energy has collectively suffered a setback

Although there have been ups and downs in 2012, real estate is still one of the protagonists on China's wealth list. On the "Hurun Rich List", there are 9 rich people from the real estate industry among the top 15, 2 more than last year. On the Forbes list, although the rankings of the richest people on the list vary, half of the top 10 are from the real estate industry.

If the time span is extended, a total of 43 rich people have continued to appear on the Forbes China Rich List in the past 10 years, of which 21 rich people have benefited from the real estate industry. There is no doubt that the real estate industry has been the industry with the strongest ability to create wealth in the past 10 years.

However, under the continued strict real estate control policies, the status of real estate on the rich list has slowly declined in recent years. In this year's two major lists of China's richest people, the real estate industry did not occupy the "top spot". The 2012 Hurun Rich List shows that the average wealth of the top 50 real estate tycoons dropped by 5.2% from last year and 17.4% from five years ago. Not only that, the number of rich people in the real estate industry accounted for 19.8% of the total in 2012, compared with 50% ten years ago.

Compared with the "stable but declining" real estate industry, the new energy industry has experienced rapid ups and downs, especially solar energy, wind energy and other industries have suffered a huge impact.

In the 2012 Forbes China Rich List, Wu Jianlong of Sunflower, Chen Wukui of Tuori New Energy, Feng Huanpei and his wife of Beijing Express, Ni Kailu of Chaori Solar, Shi Zhengrong of Suntech Power, Bao Shijin of Jixin Technology, Han Junliang of Sinovel Wind Power and other powerful figures in China's new energy field have all fallen off the list. Similarly, the solar energy industry on the "Hurun Rich List" has also become the "hardest hit area", with Wu Jianlong's wealth falling by 69%, and the wealth of Ni Kailu and Ni Na's father and daughter falling by 59%. In 2008, Shi Zhengrong ranked eighth with 21.5 billion yuan. This year, his wealth is only 3 billion yuan.

Industry insiders analyze that China’s solar photovoltaic industry has become an industry star in the past few years and has created countless “wealth-making myths.” However, embarrassingly, cyclical factors, blind expansion of production capacity, excessive dependence on foreign countries, and increasing trade frictions with Europe and the United States have made it no longer in glory.

In recent days, the government has frequently introduced policies to support new energy, expressing its confidence in the future development of new energy. In the short term, it will be helpful to the recovery of the new energy industry, but the development of new energy into an industry that benefits the country and enriches the people has yet to be tested by the market. Manufacturing companies are gradually returning and the cultural and entertainment industry is gradually becoming an upstart

> The most eye-catching thing about the 2012 Hurun Rich List is that manufacturing surpassed the real estate industry to become the industry that contributed the most rich people. The number of manufacturing rich people accounted for 20.5%, which was 0.7 percentage points more than the number of real estate rich people.

Data show that among China's top 500 companies in 2012, there were 272 companies from the real field. Their operating income accounted for 43% of the top 500 companies, but their profits only accounted for 25%. Industry insiders believe that in the context of the return of the real economy, the increase in the number of manufacturing tycoons is a positive signal.

Another important feature revealed in China's rich list is the substantial growth of the media, culture, and entertainment industries. Wang Jianlin's Wanda's acquisition of the American AMC Cinema Company, which ranks second in the world, is a good example.

"This shows that China has experienced great economic and social development in the past ten years and has reached a stage of cultural prosperity. Mo Yan's winning of the Nobel Prize in Literature also reflects this trend." Fan Luxian, president of Forbes Shanghai Branch, believes that the cultural industry will be a new bright spot in China's capital market in the future.