Few people have heard of Li Yonghui or Fincera, his transportation and financial services company, or even Shijiazhuang, the northern Chinese city where he was born into poverty and made his fortune.
He prefers to keep a low profile. But Mr Li’s career, like those of many of his peers, is instructive on at least two levels. It has followed the arc of China’s rise from the “sick man of Asia” to superpower contender. It also illustrates the stubborn dynamism of a new Chinese entrepreneurial class that has thrived over the past decade despite competition from state-owned rivals and an often treacherous regulatory climate.
China is home to thousands of similarly unknown businessmen and women. According to Hurun Report’s annual China Rich List, the number of US dollar billionaires in the country increased by 70 per cent to 596 over the past year alone. Hurun further estimates the combined wealth of China’s richest 1,877 people at $2.1tn.