Zhong Shanshan has reclaimed the No 1 position as the richest person in China after his fortune surged 56 percent this year.
Zhong Shanshan, founder of bottled water giant Nongfu Spring, reclaimed the top spot after his fortune leapt to 530 billion yuan. The 71-year-old entrepreneur, now China’s richest person for the fourth time, overtook ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, whose wealth grew 34 percent to 470 billion yuan.
China added more billionaires than ever before last year, with the number of ultra-rich individuals climbing to a record 1,434, according to the latest Hurun China Rich List. Each person on the list holds a fortune exceeding 5 billion yuan ($702 million), marking a 31 percent jump — or 340 new entrants — from the previous year.
The combined wealth of those on the list surged 42 percent to 30 trillion yuan, fuelled by a buoyant stock market and the rapid growth of technology-driven “new economy” firms.
Hong Kong’s wealthiest, Li Ka-shing and his son Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, saw their combined fortune rise 18 percent to 235 billion yuan. However, they dropped from sixth to ninth overall on the Hurun ranking.
Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher at Hurun, said the record number of billionaires came as “a surprise to many,” attributing it largely to “a strong rally in stock markets” and “new faces emerging from the technology and export sectors.”
The surge in fortunes reflects a year of strong equity performance across major Chinese bourses. By September 1, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange was up 54 percent year on year, the Shanghai Composite Index had gained 36 percent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 42 percent.
A record 41 individuals are now worth more than 100 billion yuan — up from 26 a year earlier — while 1,021 people have fortunes exceeding $1 billion, a 36 percent annual rise.
Despite the billionaire boom, analysts warn that the trend contrasts sharply with the country’s broader economic slowdown. China’s GDP grew 4.8 percent in the third quarter, easing from 5.2 percent in the previous period, amid persistent property-sector weakness and renewed trade tensions with the US.
“This underscores the resilience of the Chinese economy, with high-growth firms like EV and robotics manufacturers emerging as new engines of expansion,” said Ding Haifeng, a consultant at Shanghai-based financial advisory firm Integrity.
Even as macroeconomic challenges linger, global investors continue to back Chinese firms in fast-growing sectors such as electric vehicles, biotechnology and computing.
By the end of September, 66 companies — mostly from mainland China — had raised $23.27 billion through share sales on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, lifting it to the world’s top spot for IPO fundraising. The year’s biggest listings came from EV battery leader Contemporary Amperex Technology and mining major Zijin Gold International.
