China’s Wealthiest Discreetly Stay Away at Party Congress

Zong Qinghou, China’s richest man, traveled to Beijing in March to represent his home province at the annual meeting of the country’s legislature. He won’t be going to next month’s Communist Party congress that will unveil China’s new generation of leaders.

While Hurun Report data show that the number of China’s richest among its lawmakers almost doubled in the past five years, the advance of the most affluent within Communist Party ranks has been more limited. The data from Hurun, publisher of a luxury-goods magazine that tracks China’s affluent, show the number of billionaire delegates at the Party Congress will rise by at most one since 2007, when it last convened.