{"id":63509,"date":"2025-10-28T18:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bottled-water-tycoon-becomes-chinas-richest-person"},"modified":"2025-10-28T19:27:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T19:27:23","slug":"bottled-water-tycoon-becomes-chinas-richest-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bottled-water-tycoon-becomes-chinas-richest-person","title":{"rendered":"Bottled Water Tycoon Becomes China’s Richest Person"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Chinese bottled water giant Nongfu Spring\u2019s founder and CEO, Zhong Shanshan, has become the richest person in China once again this year with a fortune of $74.5 billion, according to the research institute Hurun.<\/p>\n

Zhong topped Hurun\u2019s rich Chinese list from 2020 to 2023, but he lost the number one spot to TikTok founder and CEO Zhang Yiming in 2024. Zhong, 70, increased his wealth by 56% year-on-year. He entered the top spot of the list when he surpassed e-commerce giant Alibaba\u2019s founder, Jack Ma, in 2020.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, last year\u2019s richest Chinese person, Zhang Yimin, ranked second this year with a fortune of $66.1 billion, up 34%. The US Congress delivered an ultimatum to TikTok: transfer ownership to an American firm or shut down in the country due to security concerns.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump said the company would be transferred to a consortium of American partners, which made Zhang lose his top position among the richest in China.<\/p>\n

Trump announced that TikTok would be sold to a consortium led by Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, Rupert Murdoch, and his son, Lachlan Murdoch. TikTok’s American partners are expected to own 80% of the company, with the parent company ByteDance holding no more than 20%.<\/p>\n

Pony Ma, founder of the Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent, ranked third among the rich in China with a fortune of $65.4 billion, up 48% on an annual basis.<\/p>\n

Research institute Hurun has been publishing data on the wealthiest in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan since 1999. This year, some 1,434 people made the list of those with a fortune exceeding $700 million, up 31%. The total wealth of the rich included in the list reached $4.2 trillion, marking a 42% surge versus last year.<\/p>\n

According to Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun’s chair and lead researcher on the recent report, there has been a significant increase in new entries in this year’s list as a result of the rise in Chinese stock markets and the emergence of new tech entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Chinese bottled water giant Nongfu Spring\u2019s founder and CEO, Zhong Shanshan, has become the richest person in China once again this year with a fortune of $74.5 billion, according to the research institute Hurun. Zhong topped Hurun\u2019s rich Chinese list from 2020 to 2023, but he lost the number one spot to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":63508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[171,245,6733,5737,1799,5738,6734],"class_list":["post-63509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-china","tag-lesotho","tag-nongfu-spring","tag-richest-person","tag-tiktok","tag-zhang-yiming","tag-zhong-shanshan"],"yoast_head":"\nBottled Water Tycoon Becomes China's Richest Person - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chinese bottled water giant Nongfu Spring\u2019s founder and CEO, Zhong Shanshan, has become the richest person in China once ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bottled-water-tycoon-becomes-chinas-richest-person\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bottled Water Tycoon Becomes China's Richest Person\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chinese bottled water giant Nongfu Spring\u2019s founder and CEO, Zhong Shanshan, has become the richest person in China once ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bottled-water-tycoon-becomes-chinas-richest-person\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-28T18:08:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-28T19:27:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666933.426894.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bottled-water-tycoon-becomes-chinas-richest-person#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bottled-water-tycoon-becomes-chinas-richest-person\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Bottled Water Tycoon Becomes China’s Richest Person\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-28T18:08:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-28T19:27:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bottled-water-tycoon-becomes-chinas-richest-person\"},\"wordCount\":340,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bottled-water-tycoon-becomes-chinas-richest-person#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666933.426894.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"CHINA\",\"Lesotho\",\"Nongfu Spring\",\"Richest Person\",\"TikTok\",\"Zhang Yiming\",\"Zhong Shanshan\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bottled-water-tycoon-becomes-chinas-richest-person#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bottled-water-tycoon-becomes-chinas-richest-person\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bottled-water-tycoon-becomes-chinas-richest-person\",\"name\":\"Bottled Water Tycoon Becomes China's Richest Person - 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