On Forbes’ 35th annual World’s Billionaires list, China leads the pack in billionaire comebacks in a record-setting year.
The top ten on the list are now worth $447 billion, nearly double what they were a year ago.
The list currently has 2,755 billionaires with a combined net worth of $13.1 trillion and Chinese billionaires amounting to almost a fifth of the total wealth.
From the creator of TikTok to a bottled water entrepreneur, China’s billionaires have had a strong year.
According to Forbes, the country’s top ten earners nearly doubled their fortunes from a year ago. Here are the list 10 richest people in China:
Table of Contents
- 10. Yang Huiyan & family
- 9. William Lei Ding
- 8. Qin Yinglin & family
- 7. Zhang Yiming
- 6. He Xiangjian
- 5. Wang Wei
- 4. Jack Ma
- 3. Colin Zheng Huang
- 2. Ma Huateng
- 1. Zhong Shanshan
10. Yang Huiyan & family
Net worth: $29.6 billion
Industry: Real estate
Yang Huiyan was born in the Chinese city of Shunde in the year 1981. She is one of Asia’s wealthiest women, as well as one of the world’s richest.
Huiyan is currently the chairperson and significant shareholder of County Gardens. Her stake was passed down to her from her father, Yeung Kwok Keung, the company’s founder and current chairman.
Bright Scholar Education Holdings, a publicly-traded education company in the United States, is chaired by Yang’s younger brother.
9. William Lei Ding
Net worth: $33 billion
Industry: Online games
Ding Li, also known as William Ding, is a Chinese billionaire businessman and the founder and CEO of NetEase.
He made his fortune by developing video games such as Fantasy Westward Journey and importing American comic books such as Iron Man and Captain America to China.
Pandemic lockdowns boosted demand for his Nasdaq-listed NetEase’s online gaming and remote-learning products, resulting in a 24 percent increase in revenue in 2020.
The company’s stream of games includes “Harry Potter: Magic Awakened,” “The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War,” and “Pokémon Quest.”
8. Qin Yinglin & family
Net worth: $33.5 billion
Industry: Pig breeding
Qn Yngln (born 1965) is the world’s most affluent farmer, a Chinese agriculture tycoon, billionaire, and Communist Party member.
He is the chairman and president of Muyuan Foodstuff, a pig farming company and one of China’s wealthiest people.
Qin founded Muyuan Foodstuff Co., China’s top hog producer, in 1992 with his wife Qian Ying and only 22 pigs.
In 2020, the company will employ 140,000 people and produce over 18 million pigs. Qin is the chairman, and Qian, who is also a billionaire, is a board member.
7. Zhang Yiming
Net worth: $35.6 billion
Industry: TikTok
Zhang Yiming Born on April 1, 1983, in Longyan, Fujian, China. He is a Chinese internet billionaire. He founded ByteDance in 2012 and developed Toutiao, a news aggregator.
Zhang is also the creator of the popular short-video app TikTok. Before he stormed with TikTok, the company first made a name in China with the news aggregator app Toutiao.
The unicorn was valued at $180 billion in a December funding round.
6. He Xiangjian
Net worth: $37.7 billion
Industry: Home Appliances
Hé Xiangjiàn, a co-founder of Midea, one of China’s largest appliance manufacturers, was born on October 5, 1942.
Last June, a kidnapping attempt on the co-founder of electric appliance maker Midea Group was reportedly foiled when several men attempted to break into his home with explosives.
To alert the authorities, his son allegedly got out of the house and swam across a river.
He and his family still own a controlling stake in Midea, despite his departure as chairman in 2012.
5. Wang Wei
Net worth: $39 billion
Industry: Package delivery
S. F. Holding, or S.F. Express, is a package delivery service known as the “FedEx of China.”
The company was founded in 1993 by Wang Wei, who is also the current chairman with roughly 60% of the company in his possession.
In early 2017, Wang took the package delivery company public via a reverse merger on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
While in March 2018, S.F. Express received China’s first drone delivery license.
As e-commerce boomed during China’s Covid-19 lockdowns, revenue at his S.F. Express rose 37 percent in 2020.
4. Jack Ma
Net worth: $48.4 billion
Industry: E-commerce
This Chinese business magnate, investor, and philanthropist were born on September 10, 1964.
Jack Ma is the co-founder and former chairman of Alibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate.
In November, the Alibaba co-founder has been lying low since the dual listing of his fintech giant, Ant Group, was halted by Chinese regulators.
His e-commerce empire is also under pressure because Chinese regulators launched an anti-monopoly investigation into the company in December.
Jack Ma is an alumnus of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB), one of the best business schools in the world.
Furthermore, Jack Ma joined CKGSB in 2006 and participated in the China CEO program.
3. Colin Zheng Huang
Net worth: $55.3 billion
Industry: E-commerce
In March, the creator of online discounter Pinduoduo resigned as chairman to pursue research in food and life sciences; Huang had resigned as CEO in July.
With 788.4 million users in 2020, Pinduoduo eclipsed Alibaba as China’s most popular e-commerce startup just five years after Huang founded the company.
Pinduoduo’s annual revenue ($9.1 billion) is still dwarfed by the latter’s ($72 billion).
Huang began his studies in computer science at Zhejiang University, one of China’s Ivy League universities.
2. Ma Huateng
Net worth: $65.8 billion
Industry: Internet media
M Huàténg, better known as Pony Ma, is a Chinese millionaire business entrepreneur born on October 29, 1971.
He is the founder, CEO, and chairman of Tencent, Asia’s most valuable corporation, one of the world’s largest Internet and technology companies, and one of the world’s most significant investment, gaming, and entertainment conglomerates.
With the public offering of video-sharing app Kuaishou in February, his web-media conglomerate Tencent, which holds shares in Tesla, Snap, and Spotify, scored another victory.
Tencent owns 18 percent of the Hong Kong-listed company and is best known for its messaging and social media program WeChat.
1. Zhong Shanshan
Net worth: $68.9 billion
Industry: Beverages
Zhōng Shǎnshǎn, a Chinese millionaire businessman, was born in December 1954.
He is the prominent owner of Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise and the creator and chairman of the Nongfu Spring beverage firm.
His fortune grew by 3,345 percent when his bottled-water company, Nongfu Spring, went public in September 2020, giving him the year’s highest percentage gainer and China’s new richest person.
Furthermore, Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy, which went known on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in April 2020, is also chaired by Zhong.
