By Lin Nian

(Clearwisdom.net)

[Editors note: reference articles published on Clearwisdom are written by non-practitioners and do not necessarily reflect the views of Falun Gong practitioners]

Forbes Magazine published its list of the richest men in China. The chairman of "Telekom China," which is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, is Rong Zhijian. He was listed as No. 1. He told reporters, "They have it wrong."

There is no clear boundary between private and state-owned enterprises in China. When Forbes set up its list of the richest men in China, it should not only count the private companies someone owns. What Forbes' analysts believed to be a private company might in fact be a state-owned company, and what it believed to be a state enterprise may in fact be privately held. Since the chairmen or presidents of these companies have more influence, they not only own their own companies, but also accumulate and appropriate wealth in other ways and in effect steal from the state and citizens. To be fair, it is necessary to consider both private and state owned companies when listing the richest men in China.

Therefore, the richest man in China should be Jiang Mianheng.

The primary reason is that his father, Jiang Zemin, has the most power in China. As a result, he should be the richest man.

First, he can borrow from banks as much as he wants. He treats the (state-owned) banks just like his private banks, and does not even have to repay his loans.

Second, to cite an example, the capital investment of Hongli Microelectronics Company, a joint venture with Jiang Mianheng and Wang Wenyang, son of Taiwanese entrepreneur Wang Yongqing, was about US$ 6.4 billion. Wang Wenyang told his friends that he didn't spend a penny on this project. It is thus reasonable to assume that Jiang Mianheng provided all the capital. Jiang Mianheng is also the chairman and director of several large companies in China.

Forbes should correct its list of the richest men in China while Jiang Zemin is still in power. The list will read differently if Jiang loses his power.

Posting date: 11/6/2002
Original article date: 11/5/2002
Category: Open Forum
Translated on 11/3/2002
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/10/30/38840.html

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