Rong Yiren, 84, was listed at the top with 1.9 billion US dollars, with the Citic Pacific shares owned by his family.

The property of the richest 50 totaled 10 billion US dollars. Among the enterprises where the 50 work, 28 percent are in the fields of high-tech, media and telecom industries, and seven are listed on overseas markets. The average age of the top 50 are 43 and six of them used to study overseas.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Forbes’ research fellow in China, said the listing reflects the fast growth of the private economy in the country over the past few years. He said the job was done by six research fellows, based on Chinese magazines, newspapers, records of the listed companies on the Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and US stock markets.

(Xinhua 11/13/2000)