The southern Chinese factory hub has 113 billionaires, edging out New York’s 110 billionaires and placing it among the top three preferred cities globally for billionaires to live, with Beijing and Shanghai taking first and second place, respectively, said Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute.
China is “the world’s absolute No 1 when it comes to billionaires, with more than the next three countries combined,” the Hurun Global Rich List 2022 said.
In total, China had 1,133 individuals with a net worth of more than US$1 billion, or one-third of the world’s 3,381 billionaires in 69 countries, according to Hurun’s yearly ranking.
The latest figures widened the gap with second-placed US, which has 716 billionaires, while rapidly climbing India was in third spot with 215.
“China overtook the USA in terms of number of billionaires in 2016. Since then, the number of US billionaires has grown by a third, whilst China’s billionaires have doubled,” the report said.
However, China also accounted for most of the biggest drops in wealth on the list, accounting for nine of the top 10 steepest falls while some 160 individuals disappeared from Hurun’s billionaires’ ranking.
Among them, Pony Ma of technology and entertainment conglomerate Tencent Holdings saw his net worth shrink by 30% to US$52 billion, while Jack Ma of Alibaba Group Holding also lost one-third to US$33 billion.
Colin Huang, founder of Chinese e-commerce operator Pinduoduo, was the biggest wealth loser with US$50 billion shaved off his net worth which now stood at US$19 billion, the report said.
The Chinese government stepped up a regulatory crackdown that has hit e-commerce platforms.
“China’s billionaires have been hit hard in the past year,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report. “E-commerce platforms, real estate, education, generic drugs and vaping were the hardest hit.”
There were no Chinese billionaires in a top 10 list dominated by Americans, including Tesla’s Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man with a net worth of US$205 billion, followed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos with US$188 billion. Indian telecoms tycoon Mukesh Ambani was listed as the world’s 9th richest person with a net worth of US$103 billion.
Overall, Asia accounted for 66% of the new faces on the list of the super rich.
Roman Abramovich, owner of English football club Chelsea, was among the Russian billionaires who have been hit by economic sanctions following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Since the cut-off of the rich list on Jan 14, their combined wealth was down by more than US$100 billion, Hurun said.
Newcomers to the top 100 included Wang Chuanfu, founder of Shenzhen-based automaker BYD.
A surge in demand for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles propelled BYD to become the second-largest passenger carmaker in China last month, after SAIC Volkswagen.
Wang, along with Wang Tao of drone maker DJI, were among the 113 billionaires based in Shenzhen.
Despite fears about the economic impact of the war in Ukraine and continuing pressure from the Covid-19 pandemic, the world still added 153 more billionaires over the previous year while the exclusive club’s total wealth rose 4% to $US15.2 trillion, Hurun said.