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Obama, Hu top Forbes listing of most powerful

(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-11-13 08:52

China's president is the second most powerful man in the world after United States president Barack Obama, according to Forbes magazine.

Hu Jintao and Obama topped the new listing that comprises mainly political and industrial leaders.

Forbes said the rankings were based on the number of people over whom the powerful people held sway as well as the person's ability to project power beyond their immediate sphere of influence, their control of financial resources and how actively the person wields power.

In compiling the inaugural ranking, Forbes said it had selected 67 people - "a number based on the conceit that one can reduce the world's 6.7 billion people to the one in every 100 million that matter."

On the criteria for defining power, Forbes said: "First, we asked, does the person have influence over lots of other people?" For heads of state, the country's GDP is also used as criteria.

Forbes describes Hu as "paramount political leader of more people than anyone else on the planet; 1.3 billion Chinese".

"Credible estimates have China poised to overtake the US as the world's largest economy in 25 years - although, crucially, not on a per-capita basis," the magazine said on its website.

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The list also features some unexpected power-players such as Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

"The goal in compiling this list is to expose power and not glorify it, and, over time, reveal how influence is as easily lost as it is hard to gain," the magazine said.

Financial heavyweights were also on the list, including Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein (ranked 18) and billionaire investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett (ranked 14). Pope Benedict was slotted in at number 11.