China billionaires overtake US: survey

SHANGHAI: The number of billionaires in China has overtaken that of the United States for the first time, an annual survey said Thursday, despite slowing growth in the world´s second-largest economy.
Communist-ruled China now has 596 billionaires, up a "staggering" 242 over the last year, Shanghai-based luxury magazine publisher Hurun Report said, surpassing the 537 Americans.
"Despite the slowdown in the economy, China´s richest have defied gravity, recording their best year ever," Hurun Report Chairman Rupert Hoogewerf said in a statement.
Real estate and entertainment magnate Wang Jianlin dethroned founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Jack Ma as the country´s richest person, Hurun´s annual wealth ranking showed.
Wang, who founded conglomerate Wanda, saw his fortune jump more than 50 percent to $34.4 billion, helped by a surge in the stock price of a listed unit.
Wang is known outside China for a string of overseas acquisitions including the organiser of Ironman extreme endurance contests, Swiss sports marketing group Infront, and a stake in Spanish football club Atletico Madrid.
He burst into the spotlight in 2012 by buying US cinema chain AMC Entertainment for $2.6 billion.
Wang took the top spot back from Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba, because of a collapse in the Internet company´s New York-quoted shares, which were the world´s biggest initial public offering when it listed last year. Ma´s wealth still stands at $22.7 billion.
Beverage tycoon Zong Qinghou of Wahaha remained in third place with just over $21 billion while Pony Ma, founder of Internet giant Tencent which operates popular messaging app WeChat, took fourth place with a little under $19 billion.