Four Chinese made it to the top five ranking of the Hurun Richest Women report for 2018 released on Oc. 15.
This year's result was particularly special as the number of women who became rich from family inheritance dropped to 23 percent from 32 percent in 2017. This means that more women in China are being competitive in the business world at present. Indeed, the number of "self-made" women who made it to the list increased by 77 percent this year.
Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher at Hurun Report, said that the result was also striking since Chinese women only account for a fifth of the world's women population but makeup 63 percent of the world's richest women. He added that China is now more welcoming toward the entrepreneurial spirit of Chinese women.
Number 1 on the list is 37-year-old Yang Huiyan of Country Garden which is the largest developer in the country. This is her sixth year to be on the top spot. She is currently worth $22.4 billion.
Fifty-year-old Wu Yajun of Chongqing-based developer Longfor Properties is also in the top five. She managed to grow her own fortune, without inheritance, by 11 percent. Hence, she tops the list of the richest self-made women in China. She is currently worth $8.73 billion.
Chen Lihua of commercial property developer Fu Wah International is included in the top five. She has a net worth of $7.2 billion at present.
Also on the list is Zhou Qunfei of Lens Technology who currently has a fortune of $5.5 billion.
The only American woman in the top 5 is 71-year-old Diane Hendricks who owns and chairs ABC Supply.
Meanwhile, 54-year-old Jack Ma and his family regained their number one spot as the richest people in China. His wealth increased from $10 billion to $39 billion this year.
Ma surpassed last year's number 1, 60-year-old real estate tycoon Xu Jiayin of Evergrande. At the third place is Pony Ma Huateng of Tencent.
The Hurun report noted that sixty percent of the list acquired their wealth from the manufacturing, real estate, investments, and IT sectors which all served as major drivers of China's economy.
Manufacturing has been the chief source of wealth for billionaires in the past five years. Real estate used to be the biggest wealth creator for the first 15 years.
The number of billionaires acquiring wealth from finance and investments overtook those who are from IT. Investments were up from 10.9 percent to 11.6 percent while IT was down from 11.8 percent to 10.3 percent.
There are also more billionaires engaged in new energy, food, clothing and apparel, and retail industry than in natural resources, culture and entertainment, and the agriculture sector.
