Every 1.3 days, China has a new USD billionaire.

(Dan Tri) - China's billionaire creation rate has reached a record, nearly 1 person/day. This astonishing number appears amid a gloomy macro-economy. What is the driving force behind this new wave of super-rich?

According to the recently released Hurun China Rich List 2025, the country's "billionaire club" has expanded at an unprecedented rate.

Over the past 12 months, China has added 340 individuals with a net worth of 5 billion yuan (about $702 million) or more, bringing the total number of people in this “club” to a record 1,434. Their total assets have increased by 42% to 30 trillion yuan (about $4.2 trillion).

If we consider the standard of USD billionaires, China now has 1,021 people, an increase of 36% compared to last year. Simply calculated, the world's second largest economy has created nearly 270 USD billionaires, equivalent to a new USD billionaire appearing every 1.3 days.

“What surprised many people was the all-time high number of people on this year’s list,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun.

The main driver, he said, came from "the strong rally in the stock market."

Party on the stock market

China's stock market has had a banner year. As of September 1, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Index was up 54%, the Shanghai Composite Index was up 36%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 42%. The boom reflects strong investor confidence in the pillars of the "new economy."

Industries such as electric vehicles (EVs), biotechnology, and computing have become magnets for huge capital flows both domestically and internationally. Leading companies in the auto and technology supply chains, especially those with a global vision, have reaped the rewards.

A clear example is the dominance of Chinese companies in the global IPO market. As of the end of September, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (China) had risen to the top of the world in terms of IPO value, raising $23.27 billion, most of it from mainland companies.

Two of the world's biggest IPOs this year involved Chinese giants: electric vehicle battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and mining group Zijin Gold International.

The rise of these sectors has created a dramatic change in the billionaire rankings.

"Bottled water king" Zhong Shanshan (71), owner of Nongfu Spring, has reclaimed the title of China's richest person. His wealth increased by 56% to 530 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) and the richest person in 2024, dropped to second place. However, the TikTok boss’s fortune still grew impressively by 34%, reaching 470 billion yuan.

In Hong Kong (China), billionaire Li Ka-shing (97 years old) and his son Victor Li still hold the position of the richest special administrative region, but dropped from 6th to 9th in the overall ranking. This shift, though small, partly reflects the rise of new business forces from the mainland.

Mr. Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance - the company that owns TikTok - the richest man in China last year, has now fallen to second place (Photo: Reuters).

Two-tone economic picture

How can a country facing a 0.3% fall in consumer prices (CPI) and a 2.3% fall in producer prices (PPI) in September - clear signs of deflation - produce so many super-rich people?

“The findings on the rich list contrast with the gloomy economic picture,” said Ding Haifeng, an adviser at Integrity Financial Consulting in Shanghai.

China’s economy is facing multiple challenges at once. GDP growth in the third quarter was only 4.8%, down slightly from 5.2% in the second quarter. The real estate sector remains in trouble, consumer confidence is weak, and deflationary pressures are present as both the consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) fell in September. Notably, fixed asset investment in the first nine months of the year unexpectedly fell 0.5%, the first decline since 2020.

But amid the gray, there are some bright spots that point to a strong structural shift. Industrial profits jumped 21.6% year-on-year in September, the biggest gain in nearly two years. The main driver was high-tech manufacturing, which saw profits rise 26.8% in September.

This divergence reflects a two-speed economy. On one side are new, export-oriented, high-tech industries that are growing rapidly and creating huge fortunes for their leaders. On the other are traditional economic sectors and a domestic consumer market that are still struggling to find growth momentum.

Reshaping growth dynamics

This paradox is not accidental. It reflects a deliberate strategy by Chinese policymakers. At recent high-level economic meetings, Beijing has emphasized the priority of “technological breakthroughs and upgrading industrial capacity” over launching large-scale consumer stimulus packages.

Louise Loo, Head of Asia Economics at Oxford Economics, said that while policymakers are well aware of weak household sentiment, they are not planning a large stimulus package for consumption in the next five years. Instead, the focus is on building modern industrial bases, self-reliance in science and technology , and developing a strong domestic market under a new growth model.

So the fact that China is creating a new billionaire every 1.3 days is not simply a story of wealth. It is a sign of a deep economic restructuring, where old growth engines are gradually giving way to the industries of the future.

"This shows the resilience of the Chinese economy, as high-growth businesses such as electric vehicles and robots are becoming new growth engines," Ding Haifeng concluded.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/cu-13-ngay-trung-quoc-lai-co-them-1-ty-phu-usd-moi-20251029101258149.htm