(Nationmultimedia) - China has leapfrogged Britain to become the world's fifth biggest consumer of wine, according to a survey released Wednesday. People in China, including Hong Kong, bought 156 million nine-litre cases (12 bottles) of wine in 2010, a 33.4-per-cent increase on the previous year, the annual study by International Wine and Spirit Research found. Wine consumption rose 140 per cent in China from 2006 to 2010, the study said, putting it fifth in the wine-drinking league table for 2010 behind the United States, Italy, France and Germany. Over the same four-year period, wine consumption in the US rose 9 per cent, but fell by 1 per cent in Italy, 8 per cent in France and 2 per cent in Germany.