To root out all the capitalist criminals， Wang suggests， the Communist Party would have to root out itself. And the party needs the wealthy class it helped create， to make the economy go and stay in power. The party can sacrifice a few of the rich; the only question is which few.

"Before， it was Mou Qizhong， today there's Wong Kwong Yu，" Wang says. "Tomorrow， who will it be？ God only knows."

By the end of "The Curse of Forbes，" our anti-hero Feng Shi， a Beijing real estate magnate， goes to prison after helping his love， Jiang Qing， flee the country. Wang playfully suggests that readers might see in Feng and Jiang the real-life Beijing property tycoons (and Forbes rich listers) Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin the chairman and CEO， respectively， of SOHO China.

"I have no way of knowing what's going to happen to Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin， if the same thing might not happen to them，" says Wang， who doesn't know the couple and makes no specific claim against them other than that they are wealthy. "In an environment like China， they really have to be careful."

Pan and Zhang may have lost much of their paper fortune in the stock market—SOHO's shares are down 70% from their fall 2007 peak—but they seem to have no reason to worry that the government will suddenly decide that their gains were ill-gotten. When approached at their offices in Beijing Thursday， they professed bemusement， not fear.

"He'll say what he has to say， but the truth is that we don't live in fear，" Zhang says. "Everyone's a criminal？ Is that what you're saying？ That's just not true. Simply not true. To say that every rich person in China is a criminal， how can that be true？"

It can't be true， but that doesn't mean anyone in China is safe from the curse of Forbes.