Woman tops list of China's richest people
A female paper recycling entrepreneur worth an estimated $3.4bn has topped the list of mainland China's richest people, the first time a woman has been ranked as the wealthiest person.
Zhang Yin "pole-vaulted" to the number one spot when Nine Dragons Paper, her company, was listed in Hong Kong in March, according to the Hurun Report rich list.
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Huang Guangyu, the founder of electronics retailer Gome, was ranked second with $2.5bn (�2bn, ￡1.3bn). Larry Yung, the head of conglomerate Citic Pacific, who topped Forbes magazine's last list, was sixth with $1.8bn but came in first on Hurun's "China Power List".
The findings show that China's billionaire club is growing fast, hitting 15 this year, and that female executives are beginning to join the ranks of the prosperous and powerful.
"China's entrepreneurs are all first generation," said Rupert Hoogewerf, who organised the list, which competes with the Forbes ranking.
"The stories of these individuals tell the story of modern China."
Chinese rich lists have at times been questioned for their accuracy or even labelled "hit lists" because some entrepreneurs have previously been targeted for corruption or tax evasion.
But there have been fewer high-profile arrests in the past couple of years.
It is becoming harder to make Hurun's list - toqualify for the top 500 today a person must be worth at least $100m compared with a cut-off of $6m for a top 50 listing eight years ago.
Ms Zhang became ex-tremely wealthy in a short period. Hurun said she was the world's richest self-made woman, surpassing US talk show host Oprah Winfrey and J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter author.
Ms Zhang's listed company, of which she owns 72 per cent, buys scrap paper from the US and processes it in China for sale. On last year's list, the 49-year-old was ranked 36th.
Hurun concluded that the role of China's businesswomen had undergone "dramatic changes" as they now accounted for 6 per cent of the top 500. Several Chinese women had gained a higher profile in recent months.
Fortune magazine has two Chinese mainlanders, Xie Qihua, who chairs Baosteel Group, and Mary Ma, chief financial officer of Lenovo, the computer company, in its top 10 ranking of most powerful international (non-US) businesswomen.
For innovators such as Ms Zhang, sudden wealth is often generated via listings in Hong Kong or New York. Of the 10 richest people on Hurun's list, seven have their main businesses listed in Hong Kong.
China's richest mostly live in Guangdong or Zhejiang provinces, and are often active in real estate or manufacturing.
Shi Zhengrong of Suntech Powersolar, the panel parts maker, has amassed riches from an environmental business and ranks fifth on the list with $1.95bn.
But there are no information technology entrepreneurs in Hurun's top 10 for the first time since 2003.
中国首富：女企业家张茵
在最新的中国内地富豪榜上，一名从事废纸回收业务的女企业家以约34亿美元的身家登上榜首，标志着中国内地首富桂冠第一次由女性摘得。
根据《胡润百富榜》(Hurun Report)的数据，张茵名下的玖龙纸业有限公司(Nine Dragons Paper)今年3月份在香港上市后，她以“撑杆跳”的方式跃居内地富豪榜首位。《胡润百富榜》对中国最富有的个人进行排名。
家电零售商国美电器(Gome)创始人黄光裕以25亿美元位居次席。企业集团中信泰富(Citic Pacific)董事长荣智健(Larry Yung)以18亿美元名列第六，但在《胡润强势榜》(Hurun’s China Power List)的排名中，他位居榜首。荣智健去年被《福布斯》(Forbes)杂志评为中国内地首富。
上述结果表明，中国身家在10亿美元以上的富豪群体正迅速成长，今年增加到了15位。同时一些女性企业家正开始跻身最富有和最具影响力人物之列。
“中国的企业家都是第一代人，”《胡润百富榜》的编制者胡润(Rupert Hoogewerf)称。“这些人的经历讲述了现代中国的故事。”《胡润百富榜》与《福布斯》中国富豪榜互为竞争对手。
一些中国富豪榜不时因其准确性而受到质疑，同时由于此前一些上榜企业家成为腐败或逃税调查的目标，它们甚至被贴上了“黑名单”的标签。
但在过去几年中，备受关注的富豪被捕现象有所减少。
目前，登上《胡润百富榜》的难度变得越来越大――如今要想跻身前500名富豪之列，入围者的身家至少必须达到1亿美元。而在8年前，前50名富豪的入围财富仅为600万美元。
张茵在短期内达到暴富程度。胡润称，她是全世界最富有的独立创业女性，超过了美国脱口秀节目主持人奥普拉?温芙瑞(Oprah Winfrey)与《哈利波特》(Harry Potter)一书的作者J?K ?罗琳(J.K. Rowling)。
张茵名下的上市公司从美国购买废纸，在中国加工后出售，她持有该公司72%的股份。在去年的《胡润百富榜》上，现年49岁的张茵名列第36位。
胡润总结称，中国商业女性的角色已发生了“戏剧性的变化”，目前她们在前500位富豪中占到了6%。近几个月来，数位中国女性受到了更多的关注。
两位中国内地女性被《财富》(FORTUNE)杂志列为全球(美国以外)最有影响力的十位商业女性，她们分别是宝钢集团(Baosteel Group)董事长谢企华和电脑公司联想集团(Lenovo)首席财务官马雪征(Mary Ma)。
