More billionaires in China than US, India
China minted three times as many new billionaires than the US in the past year, with fortunes made in drugs and online entertainment after a miniboom from the coronavirus outbreak, a ranking of the world’s wealthiest people shows.
The Greater China region, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, created 182 new billionaires in the year to January 31, taking its total to 799, according to the 2020 Hurun Global Rich List released on Wednesday. That compares with 59 new US billionaires.
While the outbreak of Covid19 has hammered the world’s second-biggest economy, it has also driven up stock valuations of Chinese companies in online education, online games and vaccinations, the report said.
With much of China stuck at home due to quarantine and travel restrictions, demand for online services has surged, lining the pockets of billionaire founders such as Robin Li of Baidu, owner of popular online video platform iQiyi.
Health-care specialists in vaccinations did well, such as An Kang of Hualan Biological Engineering and Jiang Rensheng of Zhifei Biological Products.
“China today has more billionaires than the US and India combined,” said Rupert Hoogewerf,
founder chair of the Hurun report, which counted 629 US billionaires and 137 in India.
New Chinese entrants include Cheng Xianfeng of drugmaker Yifan Xinfu Pharmaceutical and Shen Ya of online discount retailer Vipshop.
In the year to end-January, tech stocks in China surged 77% and Chinese pharma companies gained 37%, beating a 16% rise in world stocks. “A boom in tech valuations and strong stock markets across the US, India and China propelled the billionaires to record heights,” said the British accountant, who began publishing the list in 1999.
US tycoons still led the list, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos retaining the top spot for a third year with a $140bn fortune.
Jack Ma of e-commerce giant Alibaba topped China’s billionaires with $45bn and came in number 21 overall, but he was overtaken by Elon Musk from Tesla due to soaring shares in the US electric carmaker.
Technology was followed by property, manufacturing, capital and retail as wealth engine.
Despite the US-China trade war, Ren Zhengfei, founder of Huwei Technologies saw his personal wealth grow 7% to $3bn, roughly on par with that of US President Donald Trump.
Beijing is the world’s billionaire capital for the fifth year, with 110 billionaires, against 98 in New York. Shanghai overtook Hong Kong in third.
Dr Bruce Aylward, head of a joint WHO-Chinese mission on the outbreak, told reporters on his return to Geneva that preparations should not wait.
“Think the virus is going to show up tomorrow. If you don’t think that way, you’re not going to be ready,” he said.
“This a rapidly escalating epidemic in different places that we have got to tackle super fast to prevent a pandemic.”
Aylward said China’s “extraordinary mobilisation” showed how an aggressive public health policy could curb its spread.
The WHO says the outbreak peaked in China around February 2, after authorities isolated Hubei province and imposed other containment measures.
China’s National Health Commission reported another 406 new infections on Wednesday, down from 508 a day earlier and bringing the total number of confirmed cases in mainland China to 78,064. Its death toll rose by 52 to 2,715.
South Korea, which with 1,261 cases has the most outside China, reported 284 new ones including a US soldier, as authorities readied an ambitious plan to test more than 200,000 members of a church at the centre of the outbreak.
Of the new cases, 134 were
The number of billionaires in Greater China including Taiwan and Hong Kong
37% The gain by Chinese pharma companies