We all have different standards of what constitutes a good year. Maybe your start-up attracted its first investors. Maybe your business pioneered pathways into new markets. Maybe your stocks actually did what your broker promised.

Or, maybe, in a year of lockdowns, political turmoil and a rampaging virus, you simply managed to earn a living wage.

Whatever your definition of financial success was in 2020, it likely pales in comparison to the year that Chinese investor Zhong Shanshan had.

In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to better Shanshan; as 2020 came to an end he was an incredible $70 billion richer, edging out Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani to become the richest man in Asia, and the 11th richest man in the world.

2021 has so far been kind to the Chinese giant too; between 30th December and the end of the first week of January, Shanshan’s fortune grew again to 

, making him the sixth richest person in the world.

According to the Times of India, Shanshan’s rise is only the second time a Chinese national has broken into Bloomberg’s list of the top ten richest people in the world (property tycoon Wang Jianlin hit 8th place in 2015).

Known as the ‘Lone Wolf’ due to his rare media interviews and the fact that he isn’t involved in politics and doesn’t deal with other rich Chinese families, 66 year-old Shanshan is the chairman of bottled water company Nongfu Spring, and vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise.

, the companies reported a combined $3.6 billion revenue in 2019. Twenty-twenty, however, was the year that changed everything.

But who, exactly, is Shanshan? Prior to 2020 his net worth was estimated at a comparatively inconsequential 

. How did he rise to the top of the pile so quickly to become the richest man in a continent of 4.6 billion people – almost 60% of the world’s population?

"Shanshan is known as the ‘Lone Wolf’ — he rarely does interviews, isn’t involved in politics, and doesn’t deal with other rich Chinese families..."

As befits the elusive Lone Wolf, there is not a plethora of information on his life to date.

“I am a solitary person, and I don’t care what my colleagues are doing or thinking,” Shanshan once Chinese publication 

We do know that he was born in Zhuji, China in 1956 and dropped out of school during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, at the age of 12.

During this time Shanshan’s parents were reportedly persecuted by the authorities, and Shanshan himself worked on 

, as a newspaper journalist and as a beverage salesman. It was the latter that would inform his career.

Shanshan founded Nongfu Spring bottled water in 1996, at the age of 40. The company would steadily grow to become China’s top drinks company.

Somewhere along the way he also became the chairman and owner of Beijing Wantai Biological. Founded in 1991, the company describes itself as “one of the leading manufacturers of infectious disease diagnostics and a global leader in Hepatitis E diagnostics”.

 and, during the Covid-19 pandemic, partnered with the Xiamen University to jointly develop a series of 

 which reportedly provide a diagnosis in just 75 minutes. To date, it has produced over seven million testing kits.

But Shanshan’s fortune didn’t grow through sales of testing kits alone; 2020 was the year he decided to take both Nongfu Spring and Wantai public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Wantai was listed in April, while Nongfu Spring recorded a $1.1 billion IPO in Hong Kong in September.

As of 30th December, Nongfu shares have jumped 155% since their initial listing and Wantai’s have risen over 2,500%, no doubt boosted by that company’s work in the Covid-19 field.

 has called Shanshan’s rapid rise “one of the fastest accumulations of wealth in history” and noted it is “all the more remarkable considering that until this year he was little known outside of China.”

Yet Shanshan isn’t keeping all of the proceeds for himself; according to another 

 article, Nongfu Spring’s listing created 68 millionaires among his employees and family members. And, according to the 

, Shanshan has actually helped four relatives become millionaires, including his sister Xiaoxiao and three of his wife’s siblings who each hold a 1.4% stake in Nongfu Spring, now estimated at $1.3 billion each.

&#8211;FILE&#8211;Zhong Shanshan, Chairman of Nongfu Spring Co., Ltd., delivers a speech at a press conference in Beijing, China, May 6, 2013. Shares of Chinese bottled water giant Nongfu Spring surged more than 85% in their debut on the Hong Kong stock market. The stock opened at 39.80 Hong Kong dollars per share ($5.14), more than 85% higher than its initial public offering price of 21.50 Hong Kong dollars ($2.77).


Shanshan’s success doesn’t mean that his rivals in the rich list have been dormant. Far from it.

Formerly Asia’s richest man, and once the four richest person in the world, Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani saw his fortune jump by $18.3 billion last year to a total $73.7 billion, according to 

As chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd. – a Fortune 500 company with interests in, among others, petroleum and textiles – Ambani is tasked with continuing the legacy of the company which was founded by his father in 1966 as a small textile manufacturer.

Like Shanshan, Ambani made an incredible amount of money during Covid-19, selling a third of his 4G phone service Jio to investors including Facebook and Google for figure reputed to be north of 

While Ambani undoubtedly enjoyed a successful year, Shanshan clearly emerged on top, prompting the 

 to ask whether Ambani being dethroned is now a matter of ‘national shame’ to India.

The SCMP reports that some Indians were tweeting (no doubt with their tongue in their cheeks) that Ambani was “now eating humble pie in front of our arch-rival – China!”

But, as the SCMP points out, as chairman of the US$200 billion Reliance, Ambani is unlikely to be losing any sleep.

The question now is whether Shanshan can maintain his sudden rise. It is the beginning of an entirely new year, where anything can happen, after all.

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