{"id":812,"date":"2009-09-06T19:06:52","date_gmt":"2009-09-06T23:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/guorui\/?p=812"},"modified":"2009-09-06T19:11:31","modified_gmt":"2009-09-06T23:11:31","slug":"wealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/guorui\/2009\/09\/06\/wealth\/","title":{"rendered":"On the legitimacy of private wealth in China"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Economist<\/em> has an article on the legitimacy of private wealth in China. The article highlights the risks of being rich, especially for those with their names on the Forbes list. ]<\/p>\n

\n

The stigma of wealth in China<\/p>\n

Original sin<\/a><\/h1>\n

Sep 3rd 2009 | HONG KONG
\nFrom The Economist<\/em> print edition<\/p>\n

China debates whether its richest citizens earned their fortunes fairly<\/h2>\n

MOST Chinese assume it is something of a mixed blessing to appear in the annual rankings of China\u2019s wealthiest citizens published by Forbes<\/em> magazine. Early this year a novel with the title \u201cThe curse of Forbes<\/em>\u201d was syndicated in a Chinese magazine before being published as a book. Anyone on the list, its protagonist warns, is \u201cdead meat\u201d. The rankings are widely known as \u201cpig-killing lists\u201d\u2014a reference to the fate the authorities are thought to have in mind for those who appear on them. In a review of the book, Forbes<\/em> reflects on the fact that many people on its Chinese lists have indeed been detained or arrested, and asks whether \u201canyone in China is safe from the curse\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The answer, new research suggests, is yes. Rupert Hoogewerf, the author of Forbes<\/em>\u2019s first Chinese list, which appeared ten years ago, and now publisher of a competing version called the Hurun Rich List<\/em>, looked at what has happened to the 1,300-odd people who have featured in it. Two await trial, ten are currently under investigation, seven have been investigated but not convicted, seven have fled China, and six have died (including two suicides and one murder). Eighteen have ended up in jail, which may sound like quite a toll, but amounts to less than 2% of the names on the list\u2014not so outlandish a proportion, Mr Hoogewerf argues.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, many still wonder whether wealth in China is inextricably tied to crime and corruption, the \u201coriginal sins\u201d that are thought to have underpinned the rise of many of the country\u2019s most lucrative ventures. That question was the subject of a 20-page article published last week in Kan Tian Xia<\/em> (\u201cView the world\u201d), a magazine based in Beijing, which cited Mr Hoogewerf\u2019s findings. Mr Hoogewerf himself points out that many of the crimes committed by China\u2019s tycoons date back to an earlier era, when credit was harder to obtain and corporate governance cruder (see table). New wealth, particularly in areas where venture capital plays a big part, such as technology, is subject to closer scrutiny these days. He maintains that the stigma associated with wealth in the past, sometimes deservedly, has lifted in recent years.<\/p>\n

\"<\/div>\n

But China\u2019s tycoons continue to get into trouble. Shortly before \u201cThe curse of Forbes<\/em>\u201d appeared, it emerged that Huang Guangyu (also known as Wong Kwong Yu), a retailing magnate who was first on Hurun<\/em>\u2019s list last year and second on Forbes<\/em>\u2019s, had disappeared. He was subsequently reported to have been detained in a wide-ranging bribery probe. In June the mayor of Shenzhen, a big city near Hong Kong, was detained in what was thought to be the same probe. On August 31st Hopson Development, a property firm, revealed that for the past six months it had been unable to account for its own chairman, Chu Mang Yee (140th on the Forbes<\/em> list, and tenth on Hurun<\/em>\u2019s), although the link to the probe, if any, is unclear.<\/p>\n

The majority of people who have posted comments on other websites about the Kan Tian Xia<\/em> article seem suspicious of successful businessmen. Tellingly, the government\u2019s internet censors have let these comments proliferate, suggesting that it takes a similar view. One blogger argued that the vast majority of those on rich lists had escaped jail simply because they had bribed officials to stay out of it. \u201cEven our children know you cannot succeed without dirtying your hands,\u201d another added. A third had an even grimmer view: \u201cRemember that any enterprise that is big will, eventually, become the government\u2019s property.\u201d It is not always the tycoons who are the crooks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Economist has an article on the legitimacy of private wealth in China. The article highlights the risks of being rich, especially for those with their names on the Forbes list. ] The stigma of wealth in China Original sin Sep … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1017,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-english","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/guorui\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/guorui\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/guorui\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/guorui\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/guorui\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/guorui\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/guorui\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions\/815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/guorui\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/guorui\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/guorui\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}