Inside China's most exclusive business club

Liu had urged his fellow members to play their roles as business people first, that is, to earn money. Whether the external conditions are good or bad, they should first pay efforts to make their companies survive and grow.

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Chen says some online critics misinterpreted this to mean the entrepreneurs should be concentrating solely on their businesses.

Liu and another club member, Michael Yu, chairman and CEO of the New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc, underline how ordinary they are by relating how they got to where they are today.

Yu tells how he started his education empire by posting advertisements on lampposts, and Liu tells of how he once lost every penny he had but managed to recover.

Apart from member visits and international visits, CEC, which has a secretariat that employs 40 people, organizes overseas study programs for entrepreneurs, holds the China Green Companies Summit, an annual business forum that focuses on environmental sustainability in business. Members also take part in many charity activities, for example, one whose aim is to conserve water and another that opposes the purchase of shark fins.

"They are a group driven by dreams and by responsibility," Cheng says.

"They have enough money, but they want to expand their empires to prove themselves and to win respect. CEC is not about wealth but a quest for things on a spiritual level," she adds

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