beijing chinas super wealthy have earned a record 15 trillion in 2020 more than the past five years combined as ecommerce and gaming boomed during pandemic lockdowns an annual rich list said tuesdayan extra 257 people also joined the billionaires club in the worlds numbertwo economy by august following two years of shrinking membership according to the closely watched hurun reportthe country now has a total of 878 billionaires the us had 626 people in the top bracket at the start of the year according to hurun in its february global listthe report found that there were around 2000 individuals with a net worth of more than 2 billion yuan 300 million in august giving them a combined net worth of 4 trillionjack ma founder of ecommerce titan alibaba once again topped the list after his wealth surged a whopping 45 percent to 588 billion as online shopping firms saw a surge in business owing to people being shut indoors for months during strict lockdowns to contain the virushe was followed by pony ma 574 billion boss of gaming giant and wechat owner tencent who made an extra 50 percent despite concerns about his firms us outlook after it was threatened with bans there over national security fearsfirsttime list member zhong shanshan 66 bestknown for his bottled water brand nongfu parachuted into third spot with 537 billion after a hong kong ipo in september the report foundthe world has never seen this much wealth created in just one year hurun report chief researcher rupert hoogewerf said in a statementthis years list shows china was moving away from traditional sectors like manufacturing and real estate towards the new economy he addedwang xing founder of food delivery app meituan quadrupled his wealth and jumped 52 places to 13th in the list with 25 billion while richard liu the founder of online shopping platform jdcom doubled his money pile to 235 billionhealthcare entrepreneurs also moved up the list on the back of the pandemic with jiang rensheng founder of vaccinemaker zhifei tripling his value to 199 billionchina shut down major cities around the country in late january and february to contain the virus that first emerged in wuhan causing an unprecedented economic contraction in the first quarterwith infections appearing to be under control the country is on track to become the only major economy to expand this year according to the international monetary fundon monday data showed the economy expanded 49 percent in the third quarter but away from the glittering figures many ordinary workers and fresh graduates are struggling to find jobsthe urban jobless rate inched down to 54 percent in september although analysts have warned of higher unemployment than officially reported this yearwatch chinas super wealthy earn record 15 trillion during covid19 pandemic report