It’s not easy being one of the super rich in China. Take industrialist Li Haicang, for example: he was shot in the back of the head by his old friend in January 2003. Meanwhile Yun Quanmin, a Chinese entrepreneur, was kidnapped from work and buried alive in September 2005. They may sound like extreme cases, but they’re not isolated in China, where millionaires and billionaires suffer mortality rates as high as those of policemen.
Out of the 72 multi-millionaires and billionaires who have died in the last eight years, 19 died from illness while 53 died of unnatural causes.
Counting from Li’s demise to when entrepreneur Ding Mingliang died of cancer at just 52 years of age this June, a total of 17 Chinese multi-millionaires and billionaires died of suicide, 15 died of homicide, 14 died of death penalty, and seven died of accident.
“After learning the story behind each person’s death, you’ll realize that this group of people are more fragile than average,” state-run media the Southern Daily reported. “Because they have more ambition and are under more pressure.”
At the latest count, China has about 60,000 multi-millionaires with a net worth of more than 100 million yuan (US$15.5 million), which accounts for 0.0045 percent of the total population.
Between 2008 and 2010, nearly two in every 10,000 multi-millionaires with a net worth of more than 100 million yuan had lost their lives, a proportion that is very close to that of mainland China’s most dangerous profession—police—which has a death rate of three in every 10,000 police officers.
The mortality rate for millionaires seems to be on rise over the past year and a half.
Among those who died of suicide, which accounts for 23.6 percent of the total deaths, some hanged themselves, some took drugs, and others jumped off a building or into water. Chinese entrepreneur Jin Libin immolated himself in a car this April. All those who committed suicide died at an average age of 50.
Fifteen others, which account for 20.8 percent of the deaths, died of homicide at an average age of 44, following conflicts with their employees, business partners, or kidnappers who demanded ransom. Fourteen others were sentenced to the death penalty for embezzlement, corporate fraud, or serial rape.
Health expert Ding Chunsheng pointed out the irony to Eastday.com, one of the largest news portal sites in Shanghai: “As Chinese people’s average life expectancy rises to over 70 years old, multi-millionaires and billionaires are ending their lives significantly earlier.”
