Forget The Trade War: Sixty New Billionaires Debut Among China’s 400 Richest

Despite a prolonged trade war and slowing GDP growth, China’s most resourceful entrepreneurs have found plenty of ways to get rich. In fact, 60 new billionaires, all but one of whom is self-made, debut among the nation’s 400 richest this year, many thanks to businesses catering to the citizens of the world’s most populous nation. These tycoons have made their fortunes in everything from biotech and electric car batteries to generic drugs and skin care products. At least half a dozen newcomers served up food or drinks to consumers, selling them duck necks, milk tea, nuts and hot pot condiments. Charles Zhengyao Luhad tried his hand at rental cars and a ride-hailing service but got rich thanks to an investment in Luckin Coffee, a popular two-year-old coffee chain that already has nearly 3,000 locations in China. 

A minimum net worth of $1 billion was needed to make the list of China’s 400 richest this year, up from $840 million last year. Altogether these newcomers, ranging in age from 33 to 74, are worth a combined $101 billion. That sum helped push up the total net worth of the nation’s 400 richest to $1.29 trillion, besting the previous record of $1.19 trillion set in 2017. 

The surest way to break into the ranks in 2019 was to help educate the masses. The fast-growing sector—Deloitte estimates that the Chinese education market will expand from roughly $380 billion in 2018 to $480 billion by 2020 and $715 billion by 2025—created seven new billionaires, including the richest newcomer, Li Yongxin. The education veteran is now worth $9.1 billion, thanks to this year’s backdoor listing of Offcn Education Technology, which tutors 2.3 million students annually, mostly for civil service exams, in 880 locations. His cofounder Wang Zhendong also became a billionaire, as did Wu Junbao, Wu Wei and Xiao Guoqing of China East Education, which went public in June in reportedly the biggest education IPO of all time, and Larry Xiangdong Chen,

who took his online tutoring firm GSX Techedu public on the New York Stock Exchange the same month. 

Another five newcomers got rich in pharmaceuticals. Hao Hong, who founded Asymchem Laboratories in North Carolina in 1995 after completing postgraduate research at the University of Georgia, returned to China three years later to expand his company. Today Asymchem conducts research and chemical production for pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Another pharma entrepreneur, Fan Minhua, started Poly Pharm in the island province of Hainan in 1992. The publicly traded firm, which makes generic drugs, is now worth over $2.3 billion. Fan is one of just four women among the newcomers, and one of just three who are self-made.