Ranking of the 22 richest people in China as of 2022

As of January 2022, Zhong Shanshan topped the list of the richest people in China with a net worth of 72 billion U.S. dollars. Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance and developer of TikTok and Toutiao, came in second, while Ma Huateng and Ma Yun, founders of the IT giants Tencent and Alibaba, suffered considerable financial losses and fell back to the fourth and fifth place respectively.

Ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWI) in China

Net worth refers to the amount of value by which an individual’s assets exceed their liabilities. It is usually cited to demonstrate the economic position of a person. Following China’s extensive economic development over the past two decades, the number of wealthy people had been rapidly growing as well. According to Hurun Research Institute, Greater China was the region with the largest number of billionaires worldwide as of 2022, with a total number of 1,133 UHNWI’s. As of the end of 2021, the number of millionaires had amounted to approximately 19,700 people in Beijing alone. Unsurprisingly, the majority of high-net worth individuals lives in one of the four first-tier cities Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

Chinese billionaire's sources of wealth

Chinese millionaires have accumulated their wealth primarily as private entrepreneurs. Most of the people listed among the 20 wealthiest Chinese in 2022 had owned their own companies. Zhong Shanshan, who topped the list of richest people in China in 2022, has made his fortune as founder of the beverage company Nongfu Spring.