China’s Richest Made Gains Despite Pandemic

A woman walks across a road at a traffic light in a high-end shopping district on a polluted and foggy evening in Beijing, China on March 24, 2022. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

China’s wealthiest got richer during the first year of the pandemic, says a recent report that follows an earlier study that indicates the top 2 percent of the population owns 80 percent of the country’s total wealth.

As of Jan. 1, 2021, wealthy Chinese families—those with total assets exceeding approximately $942,000—had a combined wealth of about $25.1 trillion, roughly 1.57 times China’s GDP in 2020, said China’s Hurun Research Institute’s 2021 wealth report released April 14.