China now hosts three cities with the greatest number of billionaires in the world, data from Global Rich List, an annual ranking prepared by the Shanghai-based research firm Hurun Report, shows.
The greatest number of billionaires – 144 – live in Beijing, followed by Shanghai with 121. New York used to occupy the third spot with 110, but was recently outdone by Shenzhen, a former fishing village turned China’s Silicon Valley, with 113 of the globe’s most wealthy. The city has been basking in a growing concentration of wealth, adding eight billionaires to its list since last year.
According to Heng Chen, an associate professor of economics at the University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen’s rise stemmed from its efforts to make the city welcoming to businesses, for instance, by offering tax breaks to high-tech companies.
“The structure of the population is still very young compared to other super cities or first-tier cities in China, so that’s one of the reasons why it’s a very attractive place,” he said, adding that Shenzhen authorities “commit a lot of financial resources to attract top talents from the rest of the world.”