Hurun rich list mirrors nation's innovative forte

The latest Hurun China Rich List unveiled in Shanghai on Tuesday has mirrored the nation's improved competitiveness in innovation and the advancement of its high-quality economic growth, said Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher.

This year's list, the 27th edition, has seen the largest number from China's new quality productive forces coming to the fore. Five of the top 10 on the list and 60 percent of the top 100 are from the high-quality production sector.

Zeng Yuqun, founder of battery maker CATL, is one example. With his personal wealth up 65 percent year-on-year to 330 billion yuan ($46.5 billion), Zeng rose two places to fourth this year. CATL's net profit surged 33 percent in the first half of this year.

On the back of explosive growth in the automotive business and a profitability leapfrog in the premium smartphone sector, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun saw his wealth rise by 196 billion yuan, the largest increase among all listed entrepreneurs this year. This has helped him to seize the fifth position.

Riding the AI wave that has swept the globe, Chen Tianshi, cofounder and CEO of chipmaker Cambricon Technologies, saw his wealth up fivefold to 180 billion yuan, giving him the 18th position on the list. Yang Zhilin, founder of conversational AI solution Kimi, one of China's answers to ChatGPT, entered the list for the first time this year with a wealth of 7.3 billion yuan.

The consumer electronics industry has been galloping, thanks to the rising demand for smart devices and short videos across the globe. Therefore, Wang Tao, founder of drone leader DJI, saw his wealth soar nearly 80 billion yuan to top 100 billion yuan for the first time, placing him at 33rd. Likewise, Liu Jingkang and Pan Yao, founders of action camera maker Insta360, debuted on the list this year with their family's wealth standing at 38.5 billion yuan.

Zhong Shanshan, founder of bottled water brand Nongfu Spring, secured the top position in the Hurun China Rich List for the fourth time. He is the second entrepreneur to make the record after Alibaba's founder Jack Ma. Zhong has set a new China wealth record of 530 billion yuan. About 80 percent of his wealth is from Nongfu Spring.

"Zhong is a representative of China's massive domestic market size supported by the country's 1.4 billion population. But it should also be noted that Nongfu Spring has continued its advancement in high-end products and brand upgrading in recent years, which is a snapshot of the high-quality development of Chinese companies," said Hoogewerf.

Wang Ning, founder of toymaker Pop Mart whose Labubu toys have taken the world by storm, is the face of the new generation of innovative consumer brands with a global market. He saw his wealth rise sixfold to 17th place at 182 billion yuan.

Xu Gaoming broke straight into the Top 100 with 69.5 billion yuan, as his gold accessories company Laopu Gold has built itself a reputation as a luxury jewelry brand.

A total of 1,434 individuals, holding more than 5 billion yuan each, made it to this year's Hurun China Rich List, up 31 percent from last year. Their total wealth jumped 42 percent year-on-year to nearly 30 trillion yuan. Given this speed, China is likely to witness its first trillion-yuan entrepreneur in three to five years, according to the Hurun Research Institute.

The bullish performance of the Chinese stock market this year has partly helped to push up the billionaires' wealth, with the Shenzhen Component Index up 54 percent, Shanghai Composite Index up 36 percent and Hang Seng Index up 42 percent.

More importantly, the structural changes seen in this year's list have reflected the new quality productive forces navigating China's high-quality economic growth, said Hoogewerf.

About two-thirds of the entrepreneurs on this year's list were not in the editions of 10 years ago. Most of the new faces are from sectors such as industrial products, healthcare and new types of consumer goods. At the same time, property developers, which dominated the list during 2017 and 2018, have mostly dropped out of the top 100 this year.

The market, thus, has higher expectations of the companies' future profit-making abilities, demonstrated in share prices. Many of these companies are strong in innovation, spending much on research and development, and have efficient management and control systems. These have helped them to become highly competitive globally, he said.

Innovation, technological self-reliance and support for the private economy were underlined in the communique released by the fourth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which has outlined China's development blueprint for the next five years.