The legislature of the world’s last main communist country is almost certainly the wealthiest in the world, according to a popular rich list that names 83 dollar billionaires among the delegates to China’s parliament this year.

全球最后一个共产党大国的立法机构，几乎肯定也是世界上富人最集中的立法机构。根据一份流行的富豪榜，今年中国“两会”代表中，有83人的身价在10亿美元以上。

Meanwhile, in the US there is not a single billionaire in the House of Representatives or the Senate while the wealthiest member, Texas Republican Michael McCaul, is worth an estimated paltry $500m.

相比之下，在美国，众议院和参议院里找不到一个身价在10亿美元以上的议员，最有钱的是德克萨斯州共和党众议员迈克尔•麦考尔(Michael McCaul)，他的身价估计有5亿美元。

Among the delegates gathered in Beijing this week to attend the National People’s Congress, the China-based Hurun Global Rich List identified 31 people with more than $1bn in personal assets.

根据总部位于中国的胡润全球富豪榜，本周北京全国人大年会的与会代表中，有31人的个人资产超过10亿美元。

The richest is Zong Qinghou, founder of Chinese drinks maker Wahaha, with an estimated fortune of $13bn, according to Hurun.

最富有的人大代表是中国饮料生产商娃哈哈(Wahaha)创始人宗庆后，据胡润估计，他的财富达到130亿美元。

The NPC is tasked with approving legislation proposed by the ruling Communist party but in practice it plays a mostly ceremonial role. Another 52 billionaires are delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a toothless advisory body that meets at the same time as the NPC for about two weeks each year in early March.

全国人大的使命是批准由执政的共产党提交的立法提案，但在实践中，人大基本上扮演一个仪式性的角色。同时还有52名全国政协委员的身价超过10亿美元，全国政协是一个没有实权的磋商机构，每年在3月初与人大同时举行大约两周的会议。

Given the difficulties in calculating the hidden wealth of China’s top leaders, analysts say the Hurun report probably understates the true number of super-wealthy in the political sessions. The number of dollar billionaires identified by the report was up 17 per cent this year from last year, when 28 billionaires attended the NPC and 43 were at the CPPCC.

鉴于计算中国高层领导人不公开财富的难度，分析人士表示，胡润报告很可能低估了两会代表中超级富豪的真实人数。根据胡润报告，今年身价超过10亿美元的两会代表比去年增加了17%；去年有28名人大代表身价超过10亿美元，43名政协委员身价超过10亿美元。

In China’s authoritarian but nominally egalitarian system, the convergence of power and great wealth is a sensitive topic and one that Communist leaders regard as potentially destabilising. Xi Jinping, the newly appointed head of the party and military who will formally take over as president by the end of the current NPC session on March 17, launched a campaign against extravagance and corruption after taking office in November.

在中国名义上平等的威权制度里，权力与巨大财富相结合是一个敏感话题，共产党领导人认为这个问题可能破坏稳定。去年11月接任中共中央总书记和中央军委主席、3月17日本届人大闭幕前将正式接任国家主席的习近平，在上任不久后就发起了打击铺张浪费和腐败的努力。

But this appears to have convinced China’s ultra-wealthy that, now more than ever, they need to be inside the political tent. “Our government is totalitarian with an axe hanging over everybody’s head and the decision over whose head it will fall on lies with officials,” said Fang Xingyuan Feng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think-tank. “When businesspeople amass a fortune they protect it either by finding an agent to [do so] or by becoming an official themselves.

但是，这些努力似乎促使中国的超级富豪们确信，他们现在比以往任何时候都更有必要跻身于政坛内部。“我们的政府是极权的，它有一把斧头悬在每一个人的头上，至于谁的人头会落地，这个决定由官员作出，”政府智库——中国社科院(Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)的研究员冯兴元表示。“当商人们累积巨额财富之后，他们为了保护自己的财富，要么找一个代理人，要么自己当官。

“Another popular choice is to acquire a foreign passport and we are already seeing CPPCC members who have become foreigners.”

“另一个受欢迎的选择是拿到一本外国护照，我们已经看到不少全国政协委员成了外籍人士。”

The top three richest members of the CPPCC are all sons of Hong Kong tycoons, with Victor Li, the son of Asia’s richest man Li Ka-shing, first with an estimated $32bn family fortune.

全国政协的前3名最富裕委员都是香港富豪的儿子。亚洲首富李嘉诚(Li Ka-shing)之子李泽钜(Victor Li)位居榜首，家族财富估计达到320亿美元。

The average fortune among the 83 wealthiest NPC and CPPCC delegates is $3.35bn, according to the Hurun report, compared with the average annual wage for Chinese urban workers of less than $7,000. Each of the 83 richest members of the US House of Representatives and Senate has an average of $56.4m, according to figures from the Washington-based Centre for Responsive Politics.

根据胡润报告，83名最富有的两会代表的平均身价达到33.5亿美元，而中国城市工薪阶层的平均年薪不到7000美元。根据总部位于华盛顿的“回应政治中心”(Centre for Responsive Politics)，美国众议院和参议院83名最富有议员的平均身价为5640万美元。

At nearly 3,000 delegates, the NPC is the biggest legislative assembly in the world while the CPPCC has about 2,200 delegates.

拥有近3000名代表的全国人大是世界上最大的立法机构，全国政协有大约2200名委员。