Without doubt the worst hit country was China, which lost almost 50 billionaires over the course of the year as the country's richest people faced a combination of a slowing economy and a turbulent stock market, which was the worst performing major market in the world over the course of the year.
Despite those struggles, China still has 324 people with a net worth of $1 billion or more, and 13 worth more than $10 billion. In total, 21 Chinese citizens feature in the top 200 richest people in the world, Forbes' ranking showed.
Spanning CEOs of household names in the west like Alibaba and Xiaomi, all the way to the bosses of soy sauce producers and property developers, check out the 21 richest people in China below:
21. Ma Jianrong and family
Source of wealth: Chair of Shenzhou International Group Holdings, China's biggest producer and exporter of clothing. Major clients include Nike.
T19. Zong Qinghou
Source of wealth: Leads Hangzhou Wahaha, one of China's biggest beverage companies.
T19. Sun Piaoyang and family
Source of wealth: Head of pharmaceuticals firm Jiangsu Hengrui.
18. Pang Kang
Source of wealth: Chairs Foshan Haitian Flavoring & Food, one of China's largest suppliers of soy sauce.
17. Xu Shihui and family
Source of wealth: Chair of snack food company Dali Food Group.
16. Wu Yajun and family
Courtesy Longfor Properties
Source of wealth: Cofounder and chair of Hong Kong property company Longfor Properties.
T14. Robin Li
Source of wealth: CEO and founder of China's number one search engine Baidu.
T14. Lei Jun
Source of wealth: Cofounder and chair of Xiaomi, the smartphone manufacturer.
13. Wang Wenyin
Source of wealth: Chair of Amer International Group, a large scale supplier of cables and copper.
12. Wang Wei
YouTube / #SecretsSelfmadeBillionaires by Paul Chan
Source of wealth: Head of S.F Holding, the delivery company often known as the "FedEx of China."
11. Zhang Zhidong
Source of wealth: Former head of technology at Chinese tech giant Tencent. Retired in 2014.
10. Colin Huang
Source of wealth: Chair and CEO of Pinduoduo, one of China's biggest e-commerce sites.
9. Li Shufu
Source of wealth: Chairman of Geely Automobiles, one of the largest automakers in China, and owner of Volvo.
8. William Ding
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Source of wealth: Head of Netease, the largest online and mobile gaming business in he world.
7. Zhang Yiming
Source of wealth: Chairs Beijing Bytedance, a giant media content platform valued at $75 billion.
6. He Xiangjian
Source of wealth: Oversaw the growth of Midea Group, an appliance maker. He stepped down in 2012.
5. Yang Huiyan
Wealth-X; Country Garden Danga Bay/Facebook; Shayanne Gal/Business Insider
Source of wealth: Owns over half of real estate developer Country Garden Holdings, which she was given by her father in 2007.
4. Wang Jianlin
Source of wealth: Chair of Dalian Wanda Group, which has investments in finance, real estate, and movie theaters. It is one of the world's largest developers of commercial real estate.
3. Hui Ka Yan
Source of wealth: Chairman of Evergrande Group, one of the biggest property developers in the country.
2. Jack Ma
Source of wealth: Founder of Alibaba, the giant online marketplace often referred to as the Amazon of China. He took Alibaba public in 2014 in the biggest IPO in stock market history.
1. Ma Huateng a.k.a. Pony Ma
Source of wealth: Chair of Tencent Holdings, the internet giant which owns the likes of WeChat, one of China's most widely-used apps. It has over 1 billion users.
SEE ALSO: Meet the billionaires under 30
