Whatever happened to sharing the wealth? China's fast growing group of billionaires and millionaires may be a cause for concern

In 1985, paramount leader Deng Xiaoping , who opened up the mainland to foreign trade, described his approach to economic development as "let some people get rich first". Three decades later, China has not only achieved this goal - it has surpassed expectations. Today, the mainland has the world's greatest number of billionaires - 596, according to the wealth-ranking company, Hurun Report. When Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao are included, the number hits 715 - compared to 537 in the United States. Impressive though such figures may appear, there was a second part to Deng's approach that remains unfulfilled: "… and then all people become rich with their help". A new billionaire was created almost every week in China in the first quarter JAMES CHANG, PWC CHINA While the growing wealth of the mainland's super-rich has helped to increase Beijing's influence around the world, it has also highlighted a widening wealth gap between the richest and poorest members of the almost 1.4 billion population, observers say. Data over the past five years shows a shift in wealth creation from the US to Asia and, in particular, to China, according to analysis by financial services company UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers. "We expect the region [Asia] to be the centre of new billionaire wealth creation," said James Chang, at PwC China. "If anybody has any doubt, look no further than the fact that one new billionaire was created almost every week in China in the first quarter." Bruno Lannes, partner at management consultants Bain & Co, said the rising number of Chinese billionaires was generally good news for the world as it meant that China would continue to be a key driver of the global economy. "The world economy today is much more integrated than it was a few years ago," he said. "When China is doing well, the rest of the world also feels better, because China is importing their products, the middle classes want their products, the billionaires want more holidays, more luxury … All this helps the global economy." Lannes added that the rise in wealthy people on the mainland also meant Chinese consumers had growing influence. "You can see many research and development centres are becoming established in China because the mainland consumers can decide what type of products they want," he said. "They don't need only to consume products that are coming from the rest of the world." But some believe the rapid growth in the number of millionaires and billionaires should be a cause for introspection rather than celebration. "It's nothing to be proud of," said Shi Lei, an economist at Fudan University. "Instead, it brings up a serious question: what created so many billionaires on the mainland - in an economy still in the early stages of growth - compared with developed economies?" He said there were numerous factors at play, including corruption and the boom in property values. China also had a bigger population than the US, so could be expected to have more billionaires, he said. Meanwhile, social resources were unevenly distributed, with people in major cities having a advantage over rural counterparts. Officially, China's Gini coefficient, an indicator of unequal wealth distribution, has been slowly dropping in past years, suggesting the gap is narrowing, but various studies by nongovernment institutions paint a different picture. A study by the University of Michigan, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States last year, China's Gini coefficient was around 0.55. This was higher than the official Gini coefficient last year of 0.469. The higher the number, the greater the inequality. President Xi Jinping said at a poverty reduction forum last month there were still 70 million mainlanders living under the poverty line. And he vowed to lift all of them out of poverty by 2020. In Guizhou , rural residents made an average of just 6,600 yuan (HK$8,040) last year. Lu Huilin, a sociology professor from Peking University, said the government needed to think whether reforms were protecting the interests of the majority and bringing about equality. He gave the example of property tax, which is levied in most countries but not yet in China. "It's [introduction] is expected to ease income inequality, but progress has been so slow due to opposition by those with vested interests," he said. There have been calls for a real estate tax since 2010, but so far such a tax has been introduced only on a trial basis - in Chongqing and Shanghai. Officials were still split on how to levy the tax and would not be able to release detailed rules for at least two years, an unnamed source told the Guangdong Construction News. Xu Mingqi, a researcher from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said it was meaningless to focus on the number of billionaires, especially when they were not giving the society much "positive energy". With limited engagement in philanthropy, their lavish spending had a bad impact on the public, he said. "Some of them don't even know how to spend the money," he noted. A recent example was the extravagant wedding last month of mainland actor Huang Xiaoming and Hong Kong-raised star Angela Yeung. It sparked heated debate nationwide, with many criticising the couple for encouraging the vanity of young people. "I hope one day the wealthy people are more than just nouveau riche," Xu said.

Whatever happened to sharing the wealth? China's fast growing group of billionaires and millionaires may be a cause for concern

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Many Chinese followed Deng Xiaoping's script to 'get rich first'. The rest of his plan? Not so much

Many Chinese followed Deng Xiaoping's script to 'get rich first'. The rest of his plan? Not so much