China overtakes US in creating dollar billionaires

China has a number of dollar billionaires than the United States for the first time according to The Hurun Report that tracks the country’s richest. The number of Chinese dollar billionaires rose from 354 in 2014 to 596 in 2015 beating the 537 billionaires in the U.S.

Wang Jianlin, the chairman of the Chinese real estate Wanda Group holding a wealth of $34.4billion has overtaken Jack Ma, the founder of e-commerce Alibaba Group’s $22.7 billion. Jianlin also overtook the richest person in Greater China Hong Kong Tycoon Li Ka-shing $25.9. Jianlin saw a 52 percent increase in his wealth because of a 10-fold mega rise in the market value of his newly listed cinema chain.  

The Hurun Rich list tracks all individuals with at least $3.32billion to make the top 100 on the Chinese rich list.

With  Yuan 220 billion ( US $ 34.4 billion) in personal assets, the 61-year-old founder  and CEO of Wanda ranks first among 596 dollar billionaires on the mainland, a club that had 242 new members in the midst of an economic downturn.

There are 119 billionaires from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau and  715 dollar billionaires in China compared to 537 in the US. China has created 1,877 billionaires compared to 606 from last year in China, fastest growth for ultra rich.

	Name	US $ billion	Variation in %	Age	Company	Industry
1	Wang Jianin & family	34.4	52	61	Wanda	Real Estate, Entertainment
2	Jack Ma & family	22.7	-3	51	Alibaba	IT
3	Zong Qinghou & fmaily	21.1	8	70	Wahaha	Drinks
4	Pony Ma	18.8	11	44	Tencent	IT
5	Lei Jun	14.4	104	46	Xiaomi Technology	Smartphones, Investments