Beijing pushed New York into second place – 100 to 95 – when it took over this year's "Billionaire Capital of the World" title.

Shanghai-based firm Hurun conducts the yearly research and rankings of the world's wealthiest people and their spending lifestyle.

Earlier reports suggested China, despite its shaky economy and stock market, is constant in its accrual of wealth and has more billionaires than the U.S.

Depending on the methodology used, wealth rankings lists such the Forbes list and the Hurun Report have resulted in slightly different conclusions.

According to Hurun founder Rupert Hoogewerf, China's wealth generation can be attributed to Chinese market regulators that permit new IPOs to flood in after holding off new IPOs for a few years.

"What we showed today is that at the super-wealth creation level, the Chinese are now leading," said Hoogewerf who added there are more self-made billionaires in China than the U.S.

The "Hurun Global Rich List 2016," which ranked 2,188 billionaires from 68 countries around the world, was based on the stock prices as of Jan. 15. It is conclusive of the Chinese market's fall in the past six months by as much as 40 percent.

Hoogewerf said if they based their report in the market's health last summer, the total of Chinese billionaires would be almost 150 instead of just 100.

"Despite its own slowdown and falling stock markets, China minted more new billionaires than any other country in the world last year, mainly on the back of new listings," said Hoogewerf.

Last year, New York gained four billionaires while Beijing minted 32 new ones. Moscow secured the third spot with 66 billionaires. Hong Kong came in fourth with 64 billionaires while Shanghai placed fifth with 50.

Real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin is the richest man in China. Jianlin secured the 21st place in the world's ranking of richest individuals.

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba made it in the world's top 100 billionaires list. The tech chiefs of phone maker Xiaomi, beverage tycoon Zong Qinghou, and the owners of search engine Baidu and social media firm Tencent also made it in the list.

Photo: Mehmet Canli | Flickr

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