Wang Chuanfu, chairman of electric car and battery maker BYD, has become China's richest person, according to an annual rich list released by Forbes Thursday.

Wang leapt 23 places to top the Forbes China Rich List after his fortune increased to 39.6 billion yuan (5.8 billion U.S. dollars). BYD, or Build Your Dream, soared after a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway agreed to buy a 10-percent stake last year.

Last year, it became the first Chinese automaker to launch mass production of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. He also planned to start selling all-electric vehicles in the United States by next year.

Russell Flannery, Forbes senior editor and the Shanghai Bureau Chief, said Wang had foresight in promoting technology and environmental protection.

Liu Yongxing, president of the East Hope Group who topped the list last year, came in second with a fortune of 37.55 billion yuan.

Liu and his brothers started business in 1982 raising chicken and quail with an initial investment of 120 U.S. dollars. Now the Shanghai-based East Hope integrated agricultural feed and heavy chemical industry chain has more than 10,000 employees with an annual output value of more than 30 billion yuan.

Zhejiang Wahaha Group president Zong Qinghou came in third. The beverage giant expanded this year with an investment of more than 6 billion yuan despite the financial crisis, creating more than 7,000 jobs.

Sales in the first nine months hit 32 billion yuan, a 25-percent increase against the same period last year. Its tax payment surged by 82 percent to 9.3 billion yuan, Zong said.

The total assets of China's 40 richest people doubled from 52 billion U.S. dollars to a record 106 billion U.S. dollars over the past year, Forbes said.

All the top 40 are billionaires, compared with just 24 billionaires last year.

The asset surge of China's super-rich was a sharp contrast to the shrinking fortunes of billionaires in other countries, reflecting the great potential of the Chinese market, Flannery told the press conference.

Chinese people had less money than Americans, but the wealth of successful Chinese business people was increasing while that of their U.S. counterparts was declining, indicating the wealth was migrating, he said.

Chinese business people had greater influence on the global capital market, and creative Chinese private entrepreneurs would cooperate well with those in the U.S., he said.

Yang Huiyan, 28, shareholder of Guangdong developer Country Gardens run by her father, ranked China's wealthiest woman and fifth on the list. She saw her fortune increase by 75 percent to 3.9 billion dollars, but still below her 2007 net worth of 16.2 billion dollars.

Shanghai, the business hub of China, has 45 super-wealthy people, more than any other Chinese city. It was followed by Beijing with 38 and Shenzhen with 35.

David Gossack, the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai, said many Chinese companies had expanded their potential in overseas stock markets and he hoped more enterprises would go public in the United States.