FORMER Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping once famously said, "To get rich is glorious." Of course, that was back in the days when China was moving from a backward, controlled economy to a market economy and his words were meant to instill self-motivation and remind everyone of the rewards that one gets for doing hard work.

But now, after several decades of stunning growth, China is the world's second-largest economy and the country is awash with billionaires. Is this era of nouveaux riches quite so glorious as the gap between rich and poor in China widens?

I asked a foreign friend, a Danish IT engineer who has been working in China on and off for more than a year, what he thought.

"I have, of course, noticed all the rich people here and seen the huge gap between the lifestyles of people living with their family in one small room and people living in villas and driving expensive cars you would rarely see in Europe," he said. "I think for most Europeans, the amount of money some Chinese people have is almost inconceivable."

He said some people no doubt create real value and contribute greatly to China's economic growth. They may deserve to be rich, he said, but others don't.

"I think every country needs people with great ideas and enthusiasm to make any progress, and if they do, they deserve rewards," he said.

"What I hate to see are people making money without contributing anything," he added. "Like property speculators."

Many Chinese people would agree - and in more aggressive terms.

A survey by the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences last year found 96 percent of respondents saying they "hated" rich people because of the unfair distribution of national wealth.

"A small number of rich people are possessing so much resources in society," said Nicole Ni, a young woman working in a government office in Shanghai. "On one hand, we are educated that we must make efforts and we will harvest, but on the other hand, reality tells us that promotions are dependent on your relationship with the bosses. Certainly someone will feel distressed."

In separate reports, data from the China Academy of Social Sciences showed more than 90,000 cases of social protests in China in 2006, rising to 120,000 in 2008. Latest data are not available.

There seems little doubt that the gap between rich and poor is creating instability. Yet, reports about the wealthy are not transparent enough to give us a clear picture of what's really going on in society.

Mysterious figures

Since March, I've read numerous reports about who are the richest people, broken down into every conceivable category: celebrities, entrepreneurs, and billionaires.

The Hurun Report said in April that the Chinese mainland is now home to 960,000 people with personal wealth of more than 10 million yuan (around US$1.5 million), an increase of almost 10 percent from a year ago.

Forbes China reported in April that 213 billionaires of Chinese origin boasted a combined fortune of US$566.9 billion, comprising 12.6 percent of the wealth of the 1,210 dollar-denominated billionaires in the world. China's robust manufacturing and property sectors were credited with creating most of the super rich.

There is no end of magazines and institutions releasing wealth reports in China, including Forbes, the Hurun Report, China Merchants Bank, and Merrill Lynch. Each compilation is based on different criteria, which tends to make one wonder if any of them are all that accurate.

According to Rupert Hoogewerf, founder and chief researcher with the Hurun Report, the magazine calculates individual wealth based on an estimation of the official Gini coefficient - a measure of the gap between rich and poor in a country - and on data collected from large property agencies, car dealers and private banks.

Hurun also includes personal homes in its calculation, which means that owning two flats in a city like Shanghai would qualify an individual as one with assets of more than 10 million yuan.

Forbes said it spends US$3 million a year compiling its global wealth list and includes mainly owners of listed companies. A large part of its calculation is based on the share prices of companies owned, which, of course, tend to fluctuate.

China Merchants Bank and Merrill Lynch calculate "investable assets," without specifying how.

Perhaps because of all the doubts about the credibility of such data, or maybe from a desire to eschew what could be considered unwanted publicity, there are individuals who shy away from appearing on these lists.

Yan Jiehe, chief executive officer with China Pacific Construction Group, reportedly declined to be listed with Hurun and Forbes again after ranking second on the Hurun Wealth List in 2005.

In the same year, Yan's name didn't appear on the Forbes Wealth List amid reports that he had specifically asked that he not be included. Not long after, Yan was accused by several banks of failing to pay his debts, arousing public questions about the credibility of his wealth.

"The lists of Hurun and Forbes don't speak to anything. They don't have authority," Yan was quoted as saying.

For many ordinary people, the only interest in these wealth lists comes from the vicarious thrill of seeing how many of the big names will eventually be accused of economic crimes. Wealth lists have been dubbed "pig-killing lists" by many web users.

The Hurun Report released a "special report" in January, saying that 24 individuals who appeared on rich lists have landed in jail for various crimes. Thirteen of them were involved either in property development or infrastructure construction.

Both Hurun and Forbes claim that the property sector remains the biggest generator of wealth for Chinese individuals.

"But there is a trend that property investors will fall behind the lists as government control on the sector tightens, and we can now see more newcomers from the Internet and machinery industries." said Russell Flannery, head of Forbes China. "China's regulatory system will also improve the transparency of companies."

Hidden wealth

But one wonders if we are getting the whole story.

The Hurun Report wealth list is always accompanied by the image of a floating iceberg, symbolizing the fact that a larger proportion of China's wealth is probably concealed beneath the surface and is thus untraceable.

The report also distinguishes what it calls "known wealth" from "hidden wealth," but its name lists cover only the former.

The report estimated there are 1,361 "known" yuan billionaires in China, and 2,600 concealed ones.

"The richest people may not always be in private enterprises," said Hoogewerf.

Of the 115 mainland-based US dollar-denominated billionaires listed by Forbes, 36 are also deputies of the National People's Congress, the Chinese parliament, or members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference - the top political advisory body in China.

Bloomberg News estimated that the richest 70 individuals sitting on the two bodies have a combined wealth of 493.1 billion yuan, or US$75 billion. That compares with the 70 richest members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, who had combined assets of US$4.8 billion.

The close relationship between money and power is nothing new and isn't necessarily an indication that powerful, wealthy people don't contribute a lot and deserve what they earn.

When Yuan Longping, an academician who developed hybrid rice in the 1970s and greatly improved crop productivity, said in 2008 that he owned six private cars, nobody begrudged him his due.

What Chinese people abhor is money earned through corruption or backdoor relationships. That perception is fanned by media reports about how some billionaire politicians lobbied for income tax reductions for the rich and how they attempted to grab more land from poor farmers.

The business value of wealth reports probably goes far beyond their social value.

The institutions and publications are so fond of compiling these wealth reports catering to wealthy people who like to read about themselves and their peers. "We made the list so that the world will become acquainted with successful Chinese businessmen," said Flannery. "We have tried to promote cooperation between China and the world."

If nothing else the wealth reports make for some interesting reading for many people about the lives of the rich.

"People with 10 million yuan want to know about the lives of billionaires," said Hoogewerf. "You actually don't need to have a billion yuan to enjoy something they do."

Well, it's obvious the wealthy don't live in the same orbit as most Chinese.

They don't have to worry about crowded public transportation because they are driven around in chauffeur-driven luxury cars. They don't stand in airport lines because they fly by private or chartered jets. Their children don't have to compete with millions of students to get the best education in China or overseas. They don't worry about food prices rising in the local vegetable market or the higher costs of electricity. They don't live in cramped apartments, priced out of the property market.

"Some super riches in China may have earned their wealth through improper means and some are not rewarding society with their wealth," said Flannery.

"They are rich only for a couple of years and they don't feel safe yet. But at least you know whom to expect after reading the list," he said.

You could not blame the ordinary Chinese people, who are not feeling safe either, for not associating "glorious" with the super rich.

"I don't really read the wealth lists, especially the Chinese ones, because they have nothing to do with me," said one of my friends who works for luxury goods maker LVMH in Shanghai. "But sometimes I am curious to find out how our big boss has moved on the lists. It's all about business."