Wang Chuanfu, the founder of Chinese battery and electric car maker BYD, has become China's richest person thanks to US billionaire investor Warren Buffet, according to a list published Monday. Wang, 43, leapt 102 places to top the Hunrun Rich List after his fortune increased more than five-fold to 5.1 billion dollars, said Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the Shanghai-based Hunrun Report, which publishes the annual list of the 1,000 richest people in China.
Zhang Yin, the woman who founded paper-recycling company Nine Dragons Paper and China's richest person in 2006, was in second place. The number of US dollar billionaires in China rose to 130 from 101 last year, Hoogewerf said.