Zhong Shanshan: Chinese billionaire now Asia's richest person

Asia has a new richest person thanks to his vaccine-making firm and bottled water company.

Zhong Shanshan has seen his wealth surge $7bn (£5.1bn) this year, helping him leapfrog India's Mukesh Ambani and China's Jack Ma.

His is worth $77.8bn, making him the world's 11th richest person according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Nicknamed the "lone wolf" Mr Zhong's career has spanned journalism, mushroom farming and healthcare.

Mr Zhong took vaccine-maker Beijing Wantai Biological public in April listing its shares on the Chinese stock market.

Three months later he did the same thing with Nongfu Spring, his bottled water company, publicly listing it in Hong Kong.

At the time this propelled him above Alibaba's founder Jack Ma who had previously been China and Asia's richest person.

Since then Nongfu Spring has become one of Hong Kong's hottest listings and its shares have jumped 155% since their debut.

Beijing Wantai Biological's shares are up more than 2,000% and is among those developing a Covid-19 vaccine.

This dramatic rise has pushed Mr Zhong up to first place in Asia and is one of the fastest accumulations of wealth in history, according to Bloomberg.

Rich get richer

Many of the world's wealthiest individuals have seen their fortunes soar during the pandemic including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

In India, Mr Ambani saw his fortune surge $18.3bn to $76.9bn as he struck deals to transform his conglomerate Reliance Industries into a technology and e-commerce titan.

Earlier this year, Facebook said it was investing $5.7bn in cut-price Indian mobile internet company Reliance Jio, which is owned by Mr Ambani.

However, Jack Ma has seen his wealth drop from a high of $61.7bn in October down to $51.2bn as his Alibaba empire faces increased scrutiny from Chinese regulators.

Alibaba is being investigated over claims of monopolistic behaviour while its affiliate Ant Group had its bumper stock market listing blocked in November.

Most of China's new billionaires come from the tech industry. But rising tensions between China and the US over Huawei, TikTok and WeChat have also pushed down valuations of Chinese tech stocks.