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And so he did his own research. Working only with publicly available, credible and verifiable information, and while still at Arthur Anderson, he created the first-ever Chinese rich list and put the Vice-President of China in the number one spot.
But you don’t build an information business in China using only self-effacement, and there is a story he tells that shows something more steely beneath the modesty. He had a knock on the door late at night, and five men, one in sunglasses, pushed their way into his home to tell him to leave someone off the list.
“No Chinese person would ever have done this,” Rupert says, “because he or she might have been arrested. And this gave the list an “What are you suggesting would happe n independence that was very credible. Plus if I put him on the list?” he asked. having an accountancy background meant that I was considered to be more professional “You shouldn’t put him on the list.” in assessing wealth than a non-accountant “Is this a threat?” might be.” For the first couple of years his list was published by Forbes, but, finding that the freelance fees hardly covered his research expenses, he decided to go it alone. “I was really forced into creating a media platform to make ends meet,” he says. “But I was 29, I was unattached, I had a professional qualification to fall back on, and, if you are going to get up and do something, that’s the perfect time. Though it was certainly tough at the beginning.”
“No, it is not a threat. But you shouldn’t put him on the list. We know where you live.” But Rupert put him on the list anyway. If he wanted to, he could use this anecdote as part of another story: one in which he stars as an emerging media tycoon who saw the opportunity, took it away from Forbes and who stood up to the bully boys when the moment came. But he seems to want to give the impression that, in the endlessly
expanding land of opportunity that is modern China, his achievement and status are not a result of his genius but something that could have happened to more or less anyone. So Rupert does not act with the grandeur that his status might allow. Lord Wei wants to meet him certainly, and the accompanying bods from the British Embassy are pleased to know him; but he has the old Etonian’s trick of never giving anyone the impression that he considers himself a cut above them. After the lunch, he takes a call on his everringing mobile and skips on to a low wall to talk, sauntering along it in the shade of the Southern Magnolia tree. An insouciant act in the elegantly dilapidated former garden of the British consul by a Durham alumnus who has made a name for himself cataloguing the rich in China. For more information please see www.hurun.net/hurun/richlisten.aspx