China has never had so many billionaires despite the pandemic that has rocked the world economy, with the country surpassing the United States and India in the number of super-rich, according to a report released yesterday.
The Asian country was the first to be impacted by the new coronavirus, in the first quarter of 2020, but also the first to recover and return to economic growth.
Despite the unprecedented disease containment and prevention measures that affected economic activity in the early 2020s, the number of dollar billionaires increased in China last year, according to the ‘ranking’ of the Hurun Report Inc research unit, which publishes an annual list of China’s richest people.
The country added 253 more billionaires and largely dominates the world ‘ranking’ with a total of 992 billionaires.
The United States is in second place with 696 billionaires, but the three largest fortunes in the world are still American and French: Elon Musk (head of Tesla), followed by Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Bernard Arnault (LVMH).
India is the third country in the world with the most billionaires (177).
The richest man in China is now the head of bottled water company Zhong Shanshan. His fortune is estimated at $85 billion.
For the first time in the history of the Hurun ‘ranking’, China’s biggest fortunes are not linked to the real estate market, a sector on which the country’s growth has long depended.
The owners of the Internet sector companies Tencent and ByteDance are the second and third richest, respectively. Jack Ma, who has long occupied the top spot on the podium of China’s richest personalities, has fallen to fourth place, with an estimated fortune of $55 billion.
