The list of China's richest people is issued annually by the Shanghai-based Hurun Report, led by British accountant Rupert Hoogewerf. The ranking targets Chinese businesspeople with total assets of more than 2 billion yuan. This year, the number of eligible individuals topped 2,000 for the first time.

Heads of property and internet businesses dominated the top spots. Jack Ma Yun, executive chairman of online shopping giant Alibaba Group Holding, was second richest, and Pony Ma Huateng, CEO of internet giant Tencent Holdings, was third.

Wang Jianlin has built a number of shopping malls and theme parks in China while expanding his realm aggressively through buying companies including American film studios. His business appears to be struggling with financing recently, but the Wang family's assets exceeded even those of Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong's richest man, who runs the conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings.

Jack Ma Yun, executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding
Ma's assets, meanwhile, increased more than 40% in the past year, largely thanks to the successful 30 billion yuan fundraising by Ant Financial Services Group, Alibaba's online payment affiliate, earlier this year. The steady growth of Alibaba shares on the New York Stock Exchange also contributed.

Most of the richest individuals expanded their assets through mergers, acquisitions or fundraising. Alibaba, for example, obtained a stake in Didi Chuxing, China's leading ride-hailing service, in addition to investing in some startups.

Tencent bought Finnish gaming developer Supercell. The value of Tencent shares in the Hong Kong market has grown to 2 trillion Hong Kong dollars ($257 billion), closely behind Alibaba, China's No. 1 company in terms of market capitalization.

Despite a 15% increase in his assets, Robin Li, the founder and chief executive of search engine provider Baidu, fell to eighth place on the list. This was partly due to a slump in Baidu's shares due to criticism over the search platform's inappropriate handling of medical ads. Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, China's top three conglomerates, are often referred to collectively by the acronym BAT, but the gap between Li's business and the other two appears to be widening.

The stock market in China crashed last year, and the value of the Chinese currency has fallen about 10% since the beginning of 2014. As the country's economy struggles, the growth pace of the richest men's assets has also slowed, averaging 7%.