Short on syllables but big on power, that's the Lis
Who rules the world?
Forbes would say it is United States President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, President Hu Jintao. They made the top two spots on Forbes' most powerful people list.
But a closer examination by Lai See suggests the real power resides in people surnamed Li. Three people on the list have the same popular Chinese surname - the most among the 67 big guns.
First of all, there isn't any credible power list without Li Ka-shing. The 81-year-old, who reportedly sank his 15th hole-in-one in September, suffered a US$10 billion drop in net worth in the past year. But that did not hurt his No 23 ranking because he still owns the world's largest operator of container terminals, a leading health and beauty retailer in Europe, and is a major player in the lucrative property business.
Above Li was Li Changchun, the mainland's powerful propaganda chief whom Forbes described as controlling what 1.3 billion mainlanders see, hear and speak. On China's 60th birthday, he switched China Mobile customers' ringtone to patriotic song lyrics - 'Only when we have a strong country can we have a prosperous family'.
