

Friends Don’t Let Friends Become Chinese Billionaires - rmah
http://blogs.forbes.com/raykwong/2011/07/25/friends-dont-let-friends-become-chinese-billionaires/

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Shenglong
_according to Amnesty International_

I had the _honor_ of hearing and questioning the secretary general of AI in
2005. He started dodging my questions, couldn't provide logical answers, and
overall competence was lacking - not a good reflection on any organization.
Most people think what they're doing is a good thing because it seems morally
accountable, and sign letters in the "name of freedom". If there wasn't such
social stigma against objecting to AI, such an organization would not have
such social impact.

 _China carries out the death penalty more than the rest of the world
combined_

This is a very anti-Chinese article, alluding to conclusions logical thinkers
should not be making. Corruption is rampant in China, and some of these
billionaires have gotten their money by exploiting millions of people and
caused an ocean of pain and suffering - a debt they cannot possibly pay back
in their lifetime. In such instances, I don't see why execution is wrong.

China also accounts of a significant portion of the world's population. This
has nothing to do with anti-capitalism - it has to do with setting an example
in a culture that leads by example. It's a country recovering from its own
issues, and trying to create a more productive future.

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nazgulnarsil
I'd rather be a millionaire in singapore than a billionaire in china. Any
wealthy person who stays in capital hostile places deserves what they get.

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wheels
This already got flagged to death for being so grossly inaccurate:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2806250>

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rmah
According to the stats, your life expectancy once you become a billionaire is
13 years (9 deaths/yr for 115 billionaires). That's no so great.

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jcampbell1
This is factually misleading. By billionaires, they mean people that have 100
million yuan. The China Daily article references it. To put thing in
perspective there are about 60,000 people with more than 100M RMB ( approx.
$15M USD ).

In Chinese, big numbers are expressed as multiples of 10k, and 100M, e.g. 1
million is spoken as "one hundred ten-thousands" in Chinese. So I think
someone incorectly translated 亿富翁 as billionaire, rather than 100 millionaire.
It is worth noting that google translate also gets this wrong.

