Fortune of China's 100 richest suffers steepest drop in over 2 decades

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - The total fortune of China's 100 richest people posted the largest decline in more than two decades amid economic, political, and pandemic-related woes in the country, according to data released by Forbes.

Their collective wealth fell by 39% year-on-year to $907.1 billion from $1.48 trillion in last year's list, the US-based business magazine said on Wednesday.

"The minimum net worth needed to make the cutoff for the 100 richest plummeted to $3.5 billion, down from $5.7 billion, the first drop since 2018 and the biggest decline ever," it said.

Only two of the figures on last year's list, namely Jin Baofang, founder of JA Solar, and Gao Jifan, founder of Trina Solar, increased their wealth, thanks to the developing global solar market.

Zhong Shanshan, chairman of China's top bottled-water supplier Nongfu Spring, was the richest person with a fortune of $62.3 billion, down 5% from a year ago.

"Zhong suffered less than many due to his savvy investment into Covid-test supplier Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy, and from supplying the vital commodity of drinking water," the magazine said.

Zhang Yiming, founder and former chairman and CEO of ByteDance -- parent company of widely popular video app TikTok -- was ranked the second, with $49.5 billion, down nearly 17% from the previous year.

Robin Zeng, chairman of the world's largest electric vehicle battery maker CATL, was the third-richest person on the list, with a net worth of $28.9 billion, a decline of 43%.

The wealth of tech giant Xiaomi's founder and CEO Lei Jun also fell to $7.6 billion from $17.9 billion, with shares of company plummeting 50% over the prior year.