Billionaires no more: Covid-19, market rout and trade war drove 160 Chinese tycoons from Hurun’s 2022 wealth ranking
- Some 160 billionaires slipped out of new Hurun Rich List 2022 as Covid, tech crackdown, trade war eroded wealth
- Nine of the global biggest losers are Chinese, while Meta’s Zuckerberg completes the top 10 list
Chinese tycoons suffered the biggest setback among the world’s US dollar-based billionaires as 160 of them slipped out of the ranking, outnumbering those from any other countries, according to a new list published by Hurun Report.
They made up nearly half of the 337 drop-offs since the start of the year due to a combination of wealth-destroying events, according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2022 published on Thursday. The US and Russia lost 32 and 13 billionaires, respectively.
“Covid-19 and the [long-drawn] US-China trade war contributed to” the shrinking list in the affected countries, said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report, a consultancy. “China’s billionaires have been hit hard.”
A tech crackdown last year erased more than US$1 trillion of value from Chinese tech firms listed at home and abroad. Wealth remains under pressure as Covid-19 cases surged to the most since the Wuhan outbreak two years ago. Russia invaded Ukraine and the US dialled up delisting pressures on Chinese stocks, dialling up geopolitical risks.
China’s wealthiest billionaires saw their wealth shrink the most this year, as top executives in e-commerce, real estate, education, pharmaceutical and vaping industries bore the brunt of value erosion. Nine of the top 10 losers are Chinese, the other being Mark Zuckerberg of Meta.
