Bottled water tycoon remains at the top of Forbes Rich List of China

China remains the country with the second largest billionaire population of 473, while bottled water tycoon Zhong Shanshan claims the top of the China list with US$62.3 billion of wealth, according to the latest Forbes Rich List.

For four years in a row, Zhong remained the richest Chinese billionaire, which coincides with the result of the latest Hurun Global Rich List released last month.

Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance and TikTok, and Colin Huang of Pinduoduo, are close behind.

The overall wealth of Chinese billionaires fell to US$1.33 trillion from US$1.67 trillion last year, with the top 10 valued at US$304 billion, down from US$311 billion.

Shen Xinyi / SHINE

As of March 8, 2024, the newest wealth ranking uses stock prices and currency exchange rates. Due to stock price volatility in the preceding year, 189 people dropped off the list, including 129 from China.

Global billionaires reached a historic 2,781, 141 more than in 2023 and 26 more than in 2021. LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and his family are the wealthiest, with US$233 billion.

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are among a record 813 billionaires in the US, valued at US$5.7 trillion.

World billionaires are wealthier than ever. They are worth a record US$14.2 trillion, up US$2 trillion from 2023 and US$1.1 trillion from 2021.

The list shows that a record 14 people are members of the US$100 billion club, reflecting the economy's concentration of wealth.

Ti Gong