The richest men in China

Forbes: The Year of the Rat has been a rough one for China's richest, with fortunes being dragged down amid a 60% plunge in mainland stocks and a 50% drop in Hong Kong shares in 2008. The combined net worth of the 400 richest dropped to $173 billion from $288 billion. The top 40 lost $68 billion, or 57%. The minimum net worth slipped $20 million to $180 million. We found 24 billionaires, down from a record 66 in 2007. These losses would have been greater had it not been for the renminbi's 10% appreciation against the dollar.

Last year's wealthiest person, real estate heiress Yang Huiyan, is this year's biggest loser. Her net worth dropped $14 billion to $2.2 billion, still enough to rank third. There were plenty of other notable losers. The head of Nine Dragons Paper, Yan Cheung, who was China's richest person in March 2007 and one of just 10 self-made billionaire women in the world, is now worth $265 million.

Meanwhile, Larry Yung, a member of one of the country's most celebrated business families (his late father Rong Yiren was the nation's vice president), lost more than half a billion dollars in one day recently after his Citic Pacific conglomerate announced $2 billion in losses from unauthorized currency bets.

Cheung Chung Kiu, the boss of C.C. Land, a developer focused on Chongqing, has lost 98% of his fortune. Ranked No. 26 last year, he is off our list of the richest Chinese entirely. "You can't really believe it," says fellow property developer Zhang Xin of the upheaval. Zhang, who runs Soho China, is ranked 19th this year, worth $1.2 billion, one-third as much as she was in 2007.

Below are the top 10 richest people in China for the 2008 survey. Although their fortune is considered average compared to the rich guys in the US and the fact that net worth has taken a beating, they have "time" on their side. They are all so young.

1) Liu Yongxing (age 60) USD3b - East Hope Group

2) Wong Kwong Yu (39) USD2.7b - Gome Electrical Appliances

3) Yang Huiyan (27) USD2.22b - Country Gardens

4) Liu Yong ha (57) USD2.2b - New Hope Group

5) Zhou Chengjian and family (43) USD2b - Metersbonwe

6) Zhang Jindong (45) USD1.8b - Suning Appliances

7) Robin Li (40) USD1.7b - Baidu.com

8) Du Shuanghua (43) USD1.6b - Rizhao Steel

9) Ma Huateng (37) USD1.58b - Tencent

10) Zhou Furen and family (57) USD1.55b - Xiyang Group

Refer here for the list of richest men in China.

* Markets in HK and S.Korea jumped more 11% today as China, HK, Taiwan and US cut interest rate. The Fed reserve also cuts its interest rate by 50 basis point to 1% yesterday. Further buying was fueled by Fed opens swaps of USD30b each with South Korea, Brazil, Mexico and Singapore. This expands Fed's effort to unfreeze money markets to emerging nations for the first time. Or could the surge in the markets is just a long overdue technical rebound?

* The Star: Anwar has filed an emergency motion calling for the setting up of a royal commission to investigate the government's decision to spend on 3 controversial projects- High Speed Broadband RM11.31b, Maybank's BII purchase RM4.26b and 12 EC725 Cougar helicopters RM1.7b. Verdict: Motion denied?