China’s super-rich see fortunes plunge as economy slows
China’s super-rich saw their wealth tumble the most in over two decades this year, as the Russia-Ukraine war, Beijing’s zero-COVID measures and falling mainland and Hong Kong stock markets pummelled fortunes, an annual rich l said on Tuesday.
The Hurun Rich l, which ranks China’s wealthiest people with a minimum net worth of 5 billion yuan ($692 million), said only 1,305 people made the mark this year, down 11% from last year. Their total wealth was $3.5 trillion, down 18%.
Meanwhile, the number of individuals with $10 billion fell 29 to 56, and the number of dollar billionaires dropped 239 to 946 this year, it added.
“This year has seen the biggest fall in the Hurun China Rich L of the last 24 years,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of research firm Hurun Report which compiles the l.
The global economic outlook has this year been heavily impacted the war in Ukraine and slowing economic growth in China that has in turn been exacerbated the country’s ultra-strict COVID policies and a prolonged property slump.
Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of China’s Alibaba Group, speaks in front of a picture of SoftBank’s human-like robot named ‘pepper’ during a news conference in Chiba, Japan. (Reuters / Yuya Shino)
A two-year regulatory crackdown that has hit China’s biggest tech names such as Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings , and concerns that President Xi Jinping will sacrifice growth for ideology in his third term, have also weighed on investor confidence, with Hong Kong and mainland stock markets tumbling in recent weeks.
Yang Huiyan, the businesswoman behind Country Garden Holdings Co Ltd, which like many other Chinese developers has been battling debt issues, saw her wealth fall $15.7 billion, the biggest drop on the 2022 l.
Zhong Shanshan, whose led companies are water bottler Nongfu Spring and vaccine developer Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, took first place on the l for the second year running, with a fortune that grew 17% to $65 billion.
Tencent Holdings Ltd Chairman and CEO Pony Ma attends a forum on digital economy in the new era at the fifth World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China. (Reuters/ Jason Lee)
The founder of TikTok owner teDance, Zhang Yiming, took second place, but saw his wealth fall 28% to $35 billion due to a drop in teDance’s valuation. In third place was Zeng Yuqun, chairman of battery giant CATL.
Tencent founder Pony Ma posted the second largest drop in wealth of $14.6 billion amid sliding tech stock prices, to take fifth place on the l. Alibaba founder Jack Ma and his family tumbled four places to be ranked No. 9.($1 = 7.2215 Chinese yuan renminbi)
