To find out, we went to an expert: Rupert Hoogewerf, an accountant and sinologist who spent two years living in Shanghai.

FORBES: Chinese Capitalism Gets a Face

During that time, he began compiling a list of China's leading businesspeople, 15 homegrown entrepreneurs who Hoogewerf believes are China's wealthiest.

FORBES: Chinese Capitalism Gets a Face

But Rupert Hoogewerf, the founder of the annual Hurun Report on China's richest citizens, reckons that it may already have more billionaires.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

Of China's 50 richest people, about half owe their fortunes in large part to property deals, according to Rupert Hoogewerf, the author of China's first rich list.

ECONOMIST: But only for a select few

"What we are seeing is a sense of insecurity or, perhaps you want to look at it from another side, looking for a sense of insurance policy, " said Rupert Hoogewerf, publisher of Hurun Report, told CNN in November.

CNN: Report: As Chinese millionaires rise, happiness falls

Rupert Hoogewerf, the author of Forbes's first Chinese list, which appeared ten years ago, and now publisher of a competing version called the Hurun Rich List, looked at what has happened to the 1, 300-odd people who have featured in it.

ECONOMIST: The stigma of wealth in China