Business

China’s wealthy women

Yin, the owner of a paper recycling business, is the world’s richest woman

China's wealthy women

Mike Clarke/AFP/Getty Images

Zhang Yin is known in China as the Queen of Trash. The owner of Nine Dragons Paper, a recycling business, her fortune is estimated to be worth US$5.3 billion, up almost $1 billion from a year ago. That makes Yin, a 53-year-old former accountant, the richest self-made woman in the world, according to the Hurun Report, which ranks the wealthiest people in China.

Of the world’s richest women, the number two and three spots are also held by Chinese entrepreneurs. In fact, Chinese women dominate the list, holding 11 of the top 20 spots, with an average wealth of US$2.6 billion. Experts say Chinese women have found greater success in large part because they have fewer children and are less likely to stay at home. “There is no other country that comes even close to touching the number of self-made women in China,” notes the report.

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