Cong Shanshan, the founder and chairman of Nongfu Spring, a bottled natural spring water giant in China, has reclaimed the title of the country's wealthiest individual. According to the 'China Rich List' published by the Hurun Research Institute, Cong tops the list with a fortune of 530 billion yuan (approximately 74.5 billion dollars).
More details below 👇
Cong's wealth saw a significant upsurge of 56% compared to the previous year. Cong first ascended to the top spot in 2020, surpassing Jack Ma, the founder of the Chinese internet giant Alibaba.
In contrast, Cang Yiming, the boss of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok who topped the list last year, slipped to second place this year. Despite his fortune swelling by 34% to 470 billion yuan ($66.1 billion), he couldn't maintain his pole position. It is suggested that Cang's decline in ranking was influenced by the US Congress's decision to either transfer or shut down TikTok, followed by President Trump's announcement that the company would be handed over to a consortium of American partners.
Securing the third spot on the list was Pony Ma Huatıng, the founder of Tencent, the internet and technology company that houses the messaging app WeChat. Ma's wealth climbed by 48% to reach 465 billion yuan ($65.4 billion).
The total wealth of those on the list has reached 30 trillion yuan ($4.2 trillion), marking a 42% increase compared to last year.
Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman of the Hurun Institute, underscored that this significant surge can be attributed to the rise in Chinese stock markets boosting the value of the wealthy's securities, the emergence of new entrepreneurs in the technology sector, and the momentum in the country's exports.