Pioneering investor dubbed 'China's First Shareholder' dies

News reports say a former factory worker known as “China’s First Shareholder” after he amassed a fortune trading in the country’s infant financial markets starting in the 1980s has died

BEIJING -- A former factory worker known as “China’s First Shareholder” after he amassed a fortune trading in the country’s infant financial markets starting in the 1980s has died, news reports said Tuesday. Yang Huaiding died Sunday at 71, the state-owned Securities Times and other business publications reported, citing a statement by his family. Yang quit a job as a warehouse keeper at a Shanghai ferroalloy factory in 1988 and used his savings of 20,000 yuan ($5,400 at that time) to buy and sell Treasury bonds after the ruling Communist Party began allowing transfer of ownership as part of market-style economic reforms. Yang became publicly known after he asked police to protect him while he carried boxes of cash and bonds from one province to another. He was dubbed “Yang Million” after he made 1 million yuan ($250,000 at that time) in one year.