The financial turmoil gripping the world has had little effect on wealth in China, where an ongoing economic boom keeps creating new US dollar billionaires, Forbes magazine said Thursday.

Releasing its annual list of China's richest people, Forbes said the world's second largest economy had a total of 146 billionaires this year -- up 14 percent from 2010, and second only to the United States that has 413.

Like a similar list released Wednesday by the China-based Hurun report -- which publishes luxury magazines and runs a research institute -- Forbes crowned machinery tycoon Liang Wengen the nation's richest man.

"Even though the stock market is going down, the wealth of the most successful people in China is going up," Russell Flannery, Forbes senior editor and Shanghai bureau chief, told reporters.

He pointed to a domestic building spree, higher demand for consumer goods and an economic boom as driving the increase in wealth in China, which posted growth of 9.6 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2011.

"The high GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate simply gives a big platform and a lot of room for people to find new businesses," he said.

Liang, chairman and co-founder of machinery company Sany, topped the Forbes list with wealth of $9.3 billion. The Hurun report estimated his wealth at $11 billion.

The construction tycoon moved to the number one spot from third last year, as China's building spree created demand for Sany's cranes and excavators.

A total of seven executives from the machinery firm were on this year's list -- a record number for one single company, according to Forbes.

Xiang Wenbo, president of Sany, who came in 79th place, told reporters he did not feel like a "winner."

"Sany is an industrial company focused on real business, so we don't think it is such a big deal," he said.

In second place on the list was Robin Li, co-founder of China's top Internet search engine Baidu, with wealth of $9.2 billion.

Baidu has reaped gains from the partial exit from China of rival Google, after the US Internet giant clashed with Beijing over censorship last year.

Two brothers took third and fourth place -- Liu Yongxing of East Hope Group, China's largest animal feed producer, and his younger brother Liu Yonghao, whose company New Hope Group has interests ranging from feed to finance.

Beverage magnate Zong Qinghou of soft-drink maker Wahaha fell to fifth place this year from first in 2010.

The total wealth of the 400 people on the list was $459 billion this year, up from around $423 billion in 2010, Forbes said.

Among the 146 billionaires on the list, 12 are female and eight are under the age of 40. China's richest woman is Wu Yajun of property developer Longfor, who came in at seventh place.

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