China’s 400 RICHEST

Meet China’s wealthiest, worth a combined $1.2 trillion. Plus: Minnesota’s richest man.

ONE CAN ONLY IMAGINE what Mao would make of this generation of Chinese tycoons— or of the country’s carbonated stock market. The fortunes of China’s 400 richest, all billionaires (or billionaire families), surged to a combined $1.2 trillion as of late October, up 26% from a year ago, handily outpacing the 13% rise in the Shanghai Composite Index. Seventy-nine made their fortunes in manufacturing, the most of any industry. There are 53 newcomers among the 400 wealthiest. For more, including the full rankings, please see forbes.com/china-billionaires.

1. HUI KA YAN Net worth: $42.5 billion

the chairman and ceo of real estate developer china evergrande group became the country’s wealthiest man—up from no. 9 last year— following a stunning 469% rise in his company’s hong kong–listed stock, which swelled his fortune by nearly $33 billion.

2. MA HUATENG $39 billion

known as “Pony ma,” he chairs internet giant tencent holdings, developer of the hugely popular wechat messaging app. a jump in tencent stock ponied up an additional $14.5 billion to ma’s fortune over the past year.

3. JACK MA $38.6 billion

ma’s e-commerce powerhouse, alibaba, keeps growing as ever more people worldwide shop online. his wealth is following suit, having increased by $10 billion since 2016.

4. WANG JIANLIN $25.2 billion

last year’s listtopper is one of 92 chinese billionaires whose wealth dropped. his dalian wanda real estate and entertainment group has been selling assets, such as its struggling theme parks and dozens of hotels, to pay down immense debt.

5. WANG WEI $22.3 billion

reportedly a former textilefactory worker, wang runs s.f. express, china’s version of fedex. he took it public in february via a backdoor listing, having acquired listed firm maanshan dingtai rare earth.

NOTABLE NEWCOMER ZHANG YIMING $4 billion

His startup, Beijing Bytedance Technology, created a popular app called Toutiao (“headlines” in Chinese), which aggregates thirdparty news and videos and has attracted 120 million subscribers. The company raised $2 billion in August at a valuation of $20 billion.

NOTABLE NEWSMAKER SUN HONGBIN $10.4 billion

Sun is founder and chairman of Sunac China Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed real estate developer whose shares rocketed 632% in the past year. This July, Sunac spent $6.6 billion to buy theme parks from Wang Jianlin’s Wanda group (above).