Thanks to its booming economy — now the world's second largest — China has nearly doubled its number of billionaires to 115, according to the Forbes annual list of the world's richest people.

"I think it's a good thing. It shows that China is getting richer and there will be fewer poor people," said Wang Fu, 23, a delivery boy working in China's commercial capital Shanghai.

Robin Li, the man behind the popular search engine Baidu, is listed with an estimated wealth of US$9.4 billion, topping the list in China and generating much acclaim from the country's enthusiastic Internet users.

"He's handsome, rich and young. Wow," wrote Rainy Pavilion on Weibo, China's Twitter-like micro-blogging service.

Still, the country has a complex relationship with magnates. Once vilified as evil capitalist exploiters, the ruling Communist Party now goes out of its way to lavish attention on them and bring them in to the political system.

High profile cases in recent years of the very rich being jailed for corruption or other offences have dragged many names and reputations into the mud.

DISDAIN FOR POORER CHINESE

Widely publicized cases of rich Chinese treating their poorer countryfolk with disdain has also generated heated debate. Traffic accidents between luxurious cars and farmers have made headlines.

But what is generally not talked about in Communist Party-ruled China is the wealth of those connected with the senior leadership, a taboo subject.

"What about the wealth of the Standing Committee?" wrote one user on the online bulletin board of Beijing's elite Tsinghua University, referring to China's ruling inner circle. "Are their relatives being rated too?"

'RICH BUT UNCHARITABLE'

On the mainland, some rich Chinese are deeply involved in charity, but others are reluctant to make philanthropic contributions, which have yet to reach the scale of Western billionaires.

China's 50 most generous individuals donated US$1.2 billion in 2009, according to the 2010 Hurun Philanthropy List.

"Those who are rich but uncharitable, that's what I'm most interested in," wrote Wang Hong CN on renren.com, a Chinese version of Facebook.

Yet the real number of billionaires could be a lot higher, due to the reticence of some Chinese to reveal the true extent of their wealth, fearful of attracting unwanted government attention, or wanting to hide their links with government.

"This has ignored the full strength of China," wrote a Weibo user called Lixin629 of the Forbes report.

"China has many more rich people who have not announced their assets. If the 'two sessions' (parliament) allow government officials and state-owned enterprises to announce their total assets, the results will be different."