The ten richest Chinese language billionaires in 2023

Prime Chinese language billionaires embrace the founding father of TikTok’s mother or father firm, founders of main e-commerce and know-how corporations, and the president of a tea and bottled water firm. In a down yr for a lot of Chinese language shares, the highest 10 are practically nearly as good as a yr in the past.

cHinas’ billionaire-producing muscle has weakened. The variety of billionaires in mainland China Forbes The thirty seventh annual record of worldwide billionaires has dropped for the second consecutive yr. A complete of 495 billionaires made the 2023 rankings, down from 539 a yr in the past and a file 626 in 2021, because the fallout from the pandemic and geopolitical tensions drove inventory costs down and damage financial development on the earth’s second largest financial system.

Nonetheless, mainland China has the second-most billionaires globally, behind solely america, which has 735 billionaires this yr.

The mainland Chinese language rely doesn’t embrace passport holders from Hong Kong and Macau, which Forbes record individually. Counting these billionaires, Larger China has 562 members on the 2023 record, down from 607 in 2022 and 698 in 2021.

Upset by weaker inventory costs, the mixture wealth of China’s billionaires is all the way down to $1.67 trillion this yr, down from $1.96 trillion final yr and $2.5 trillion final yr. 2021 record. Whereas 76 Chinese language from final yr’s record dropped out, 16 newcomers and 14 returnees who made the record up to now, dropped out, and at the moment are again within the ranks have made the $1 billion reduce.

Collectively, China’s prime ten are value $311 billion, down from $322 billion in 2022 and $447 billion in 2021. .

No. 1 Chinese language listener for the third yr in a row is the bottled water and tea tycoon Zhongshanshan, the founding father of Hong Kong listed firm Nongfu Spring. Zhong, who dropped out of elementary faculty throughout China’s chaotic Cultural Revolution, is value an estimated $68 billion, up from $65.7 billion final yr because of continued demand for bottled water; he ranks because the fifteenth richest particular person on the earth.

Zhong was amongst 5 of the highest ten in China whose fortunes have risen over the previous yr. Notable among the many bunch was the e-commerce billionaire Colin Huangfounding father of Nasdaq-listed PDD Holdings (previously known as Pinduoduo), whose fortune has elevated to about $30.2 billion from $11.3 billion in 2022. PDD’s shares have greater than doubled up to now yr after the profitable introduction of low-cost buying website Temu in america.

The fortunes of different web firm founders additionally soared amid expectations of a restoration in spending after strict pandemic measures have been lifted. Between them: Chris Xufounder of personal quick trend website Shein, which practically doubled his fortune to $10.5 billion this yr, and Baidus Robin Liwhose wealth elevated by $700 million to $7.7 billion.

Listed here are the ten richest folks in China:

_{(SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY AS OF MARCH 10, 2023)}

#1. Zhongshanshan

Web property: 68 billion {dollars} | Supply of wealth: Drinks, prescription drugs | Residence: Hangzhou

Zhong chairs bottled water and tea beverage producer at Nongfu Spring. It retains the highest richest spot in China, which it gained in 2021 after the corporate’s IPO in September 2020 in Hong Kong. An increase in shares of beverage maker Nongfu Spring offset a decline in shares of its Covid testing provider Beijing Wantai Organic Pharmacy, a producer of Covid-19 testing kits, which it chairs.