Economically speaking, the People’s Republic of China is the most imposing of the BRIC nations. In the last two decades, the rate of growth of China on the world’s economic stage has been dizzying, and the list of Chinese billionaires is now the second longest in the world, right after the United States.

Many of these billionaires from China are in their forties, and they are helping their country become an even greater world economy. Back in September, the Telegraph news daily from the United Kingdom reported that more than 400 Chinese billionaires were counted by the Hurun rich list. This list has been following the fast growth of Chinese millionaires and billionaires since 1999, and it has grown significantly since its inception.

China has also reached out to many nations, including Costa Rica, with the purpose of developing stronger economic ties.

There were 130 billionaires on the Hurun rich list in 2009. A year later the number was 2010, and in 2011 it was over 400. China has become more transparent in the last few years with regard to financial reporting, and thus the number of billionaires was expected to rise. That is not the case, according to a phenomenon called the Chinese Billionaire Flame-Out by Forbes magazine.

In 2011, the American financial and wealth publication reported that 115 Chinese nationals made its closely-followed Forbes Billionaire List, usually topped by Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett. The glory was short-lived, as back in March Forbes announced that 35 of those Chinese billionaires had dropped from the list, victims of the global financial slowdown and the credit crunch.

The Telegraph reports that Chinese fortunes are very volatile. Some of these billionaires, like 41-year old Xu Ming -the CEO of the Dalian Shide Group- have been arrested for economic crimes and corruption, according to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

A recent report from Al Jazeera indicates that there are approximately one million millionaires and about 600 billionaires in China. They are involved in meeting the demands of the burgeoning Chinese middle class families. Some are responsible for construction projects that erect residential and corporate towers in just 14 days. Others keep mining China for her natural resources like rare earth, as previously reported in The Costa Rica Star.

According to Forbes, “it isn’t a sure thing that that the [Chinese] billionaire boom will return soon. The government, after following an export-led and industry-heavy development model for years, appears to be struggling to nudge the economy in new direction.”