Although Zhang has handed over corporate roles to Liang Rubo, he is widely seen as the real decision maker at the tech giant. — SCMP
Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance and China’s richest man, has not obtained Singaporean citizenship, according to a statement from Douyin, the Chinese sister app of TikTok.
Douyin said it was not true that Zhang, 42, has obtained Singaporean citizenship, in an apparent response to a Tuesday report by Singapore’s Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao, which claimed he had done so.
The original report was deleted from the Singapore newspaper’s website as of Wednesday morning, but it stirred significant interest in China as the nationality of the country’s super-rich is a sensitive issue.
According to the country’s nationality law, a Chinese national has to give up citizenship if he or she obtains citizenship from another country. Singapore has become a safe haven for China’s new generation of wealthy individuals in recent years as they try to find a middle ground between China and the US.
Zhang spends most of his time in Singapore, according to people close to the Chinese billionaire.
Although Zhang has handed over corporate roles to his college roommate and ByteDance co-founder Liang Rubo, he is widely seen as the real decision maker at the tech giant, which started out in a Beijing flat 13 years ago. According to legal filings from TikTok last year, Zhang owns a 21% stake in ByteDance, making him the richest person in China, according to Bloomberg and a separate rich list compiled by Hurun.
In its most recent rich list, Forbes also placed Zhang at No 1 in China with a personal net worth of US$65.5bil (RM291.71bil).
Since stepping down from the CEO position in 2021, Zhang has stayed out of public view, but his business empire has continued to grow in influence and power. He is also seen as a key figure in China’s new generation of tech entrepreneurs who have global impact, and is dubbed one of the country’s “Fantastic Four”, along with DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, Unitree Robotics founder Wang Xingxing and DJI founder Frank Wang Tao.
Public interest in Zhang’s whereabouts and his nationality comes at a time when TikTok’s fate in the US hangs in the balance. According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump will this week consider a final proposal relating to TikTok’s sale ahead of an April 5 deadline for the app to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a US ban. – South China Morning Post
