China’s richest shuffle spots on billionaire list as wealth crackdown batters Jack Ma

Ma, last year’s richest, dropped to fifth as his fortune shrank 36% to US$39.6bil (RM164.41bil). Ma and Alibaba fell out of favour with Beijing soon after he gave a speech late last year criticising China’s financial regulators. — Reuters

SHANGHAI: Bottled-water tycoon Zhong Shanshan has become China’s wealthiest person, according to an annual ranking released Oct 27, as a government campaign to rein in the super-rich took a big bite out of the fortunes of perennial front-runners like Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma.

Zhong, in his late 60s, has seen his fortune swell following the stock listings last year of his Nongfu Spring mineral water and separate pharma company Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, which has tapped into massive demand for Covid-19 test kits.