Machinery tycoon tops China rich list

A machinery tycoon topped a list of China's richest people released on Wednesday, as the world's second biggest economy continues to create dollar billionaires despite the global crisis. Many of those on the list compiled by the Hurun Report -- which publishes luxury magazines and runs a research institute -- made their money in China's construction and property sectors, as well as a growing domestic retail market. "China's rich have defied the global financial crisis with another record year of growth," Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the Hurun Report, said in a statement. The list -- released annually -- records China's 1,000 richest people, though only the names of the top 50 were announced Wednesday. The full ranking of China's 1,000 richest individuals included 271 dollar billionaires, up from 189 last year. The price of entry was $310 million, up from $220 million in 2010. Liang Wengen, co-founder of machinery company Sany, came in first with a fortune of $11 billion, rising from fourth place as China's economic boom helped his firm grow from a welding materials factory into an industry giant. Beverage magnate Zong Qinghou of the Wahaha company slipped to second place this year from first last year with wealth of $10.7 billion. A Wahaha spokesman dismissed the ranking for the company's chairman. "It doesn't matter whether he is on the list or not. We don't pay much attention to it," spokesman Shan Qining told AFP. In third place was co-founder of China's top Internet search engine Baidu, Robin Li, at $8.8 billion. Baidu, which accounts for three-quarters of Internet searches in China, has benefited from chief rival Google's partial move out of the market last year after a public spat with Beijing over censorship. Another beverage magnate -- Yan Bin of the Ruoy Chai International Group, the Chinese owner of sales rights for energy drink Red Bull -- came in fourth with a fortune of $7.8 billion. Of the top 50 people on the list, 29 of them counted property as one of the main sources of their wealth. Among the top ten, four were focused mainly on the real estate sector. "There seems to be a relentless construction boom going on in China. Just about every tycoon is involved in the property market," compiler Hoogewerf told AFP. These included the fifth and six members on the list -- Xu Jiayin, chief executive officer of Hong Kong-listed Evergrande Real Estate Group, and Wang Jianlin, chairman of commercial property developer Wanda. China's richest woman was Wu Yajun of Longfor, another property company. She came in at number seven to take the crown from paper recycling queen Zhang Yin of Nine Dragons Paper, who dropped to 24th place this year. The Hurun Report's annual rich list competes with another compiled by US magazine Forbes -- due out on Thursday.