China tops the list of self-made rich women

China once again appears on top of the list of global self-made woman billionaires.  The four wealthiest self-made women documented in a report published by Hurun are of Chinese nationality, and half-five out of a total of 10, come from the Asian Tiger.

Founder of Lens Technology, a firm that manufactures glass protector screens for devices, Zhou Qunfei was declared the world's richest self-made woman, with a net worth of $9.8bn.

Her company has contracts with some of the biggest technology firms and Apple and Samsung are its priority clients.

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Zhou, who came from humble origins, belonging to the rural settlements of China, also made it to the Forbes Billionaires list released earlier this week.

Forbes ranked her as the world's 16th richest woman overall, with all of those above her appearing to have inherited or married into their wealth.

In total, 28 of the top 50 on the Hurun self-made list are from China. Second to Zhou, came the property developer, Wu Yajun from the western city of Chongqing. She is worth $9.3bn after a staggering 83% leap in her fortune in just 12 months.

Yajun moved into second place after another real estate developer Chen Lihua, who runs Fu Wah International, slipped to third after her wealth barely changed since 2017 with a net worth of $9.1 billion dollars.


American Diane Hendricks, the co-founder of Wisconsin-based ABC Supply, became the richest self-made woman from outside China. ABC Supply is one of the US's largest distributors of roofing and windows.

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Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, is the highest new entrant on the list, with Hurun putting her wealth at $2.8bn. She is the Chief executive of Vietnamese airline VietJet.

India, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw who runs pharmaceutical giant Biocon became the only woman from India to have made it to the list.

A huge growth in the fortunes of the billionaires in just the past year has been observed.

Ms Zhou, for example, is worth 45 per cent more than she was last year, with another woman on the list, Hong Kong pharmaceuticals executive Zheng Xiangling more than doubling her wealth.

This article originally appeared in BBC.